A seismic assessment algorithm for smart grid safety monitoring

Among natural disasters, earthquakes are a major factor that damages transmission lines and power towers, but the impacts of earthquakes on transmission towers are less discussed. For many countries, earthquakes often cause power outages. Traditionally, the safety of extra-high voltage (EHV) transmission systems is inspected by the staff of power companies. Due to high labor costs and time consuming patrols, system anomalies are difficult to be identified immediately. Therefore, this study develops a seismic assessment algorithm for electrical grid safety monitoring with the wireless sensing technology to assess seismic hazard for the EHV transmission system. In the monitoring system, the environment sensing data can be transmitted in real-time by a wireless network. And the intensity data can be analyzed by the algorithm immediately after an earthquake occurs. Specifically, peak ground acceleration (PGA) is adopted as the seismic intensity parameter, and effective peak acceleration (EPA) is a reference parameter used to evaluate towers seismic hazard. Based on the simulation and verification results, the accuracy of the proposed seismic intensity algorithm is high, and the calculation speed is fast. Thus, the purpose of early warning can be achieved by using the proposed algorithm.