Copernicus powering Grid Risk Assessments
EUSPA, in its mission to drive innovation and market uptake, actively promotes the use of Copernicus data and services across a wide range of application domains. By supporting user-centric solutions, EUSPA helps transform Earth Observation data into impactful services for the environment, security, economy, and society. This success story is the result of one of our actions.
Assessing the potential impact of wildfires and hydro-geological risks on energy infrastructure is a critical concern. Transmission and Distribution System Operators (TSOs & DSOs) regularly perform network planning and risk analyses to account for natural hazards. Performing such assessments can highlight specific parts of the infrastructure that are at risk and can simultaneously inform the routing of future grid extensions. Grid operators need reliable data to support the creation of tailored risk maps, and Copernicus data and services can provide key inputs as showcased in this demonstration.
The Challenge
Climate change has increased the occurrence of natural disasters such as wildfires due to droughts and floods due to heavy rainfall. Network infrastructure might be particularly vulnerable to these events, and it is important for network operators to understand which parts of their assets could potentially be at risk. This allows the operators to set up more effective preventative measures. The benefits are directly related to the improvement in service quality, resulting in a lower impact on customers and a reduction in costs due to better budget management. For the case of wildfires, such measures include fire-resistant designs, vegetation management, or early warning systems.
To combat floodings, measures include reinforcing infrastructure in landslide-prone areas, installing drainage systems to manage water accumulation, in the same specific areas monitoring geological conditions. Often, emergency response plans and communication protocols with relevant authorities are established to ensure timely action. Additionally, future network routing can be adapted to account for specific risks. The key is to understand where the risks are the highest, in order to deploy the required measures effectively and efficiently.
Without adaptive solutions, energy providers risk costly damages, prolonged outages, and compromised energy security. Energy companies, like Enel, an Italian multinational company specializing in the production and distribution of electricity and global leader in renewable energy, are looking for practical and precise solutions to manage increasingly common risks like wildfires and floods.
The Solution
To address these challenges, Italy based Planetek’s grid vulnerability analysis service, powered by various Copernicus data and services, provides a significant advancement in identifying risks related to floods and wildfires. The solution presented includes Sentinel-1 and -2, various inputs from the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, as well as the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) by the Copernicus Emergency Service. Using a proprietary workflow, Planetek generated various flood risk and fire risk maps in the regions of Aragon, Catalunya, and Andalucia. These risk maps classified areas into different risk zones (e.g. low, medium, high) based on the combined hazard and vulnerability analysis.
Copernicus in Action
The Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) and the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) are integral components of the European Union's Copernicus Earth Observation program, supporting the monitoring and managing of environmental changes and natural hazards. For this specific use case, CLMS provides comprehensive, reliable, and up-to-date data on land cover and land-use changes, soil water index, and tree density information. EFFIS, on the other hand provides key inputs regarding historical wildfires around the critical infrastructures of Enel.
Key Outcomes
From a technical perspective, this solution is highly flexible to be implemented in, a wide range of geographic terrain, and adaptable to various infrastructure or assets. Its flexibility ensures seamless integration with existing infrastructure, making it compatible with a variety of tools used for both infrastructure planning and emergency management. The solution is designed to be user-friendly, supporting grid operators with ease, enhancing its applicability and effectiveness in ensuring the resilience of energy system.
The solution can be embedded in dynamic dashboards with the possibility of loading auxiliary data and filters built on the database. Functions integrated in these dashboards include exploration, dynamic and interlinked data filtering on information of interest, query, search, comparison, measurement, count tools. The data accessed here can be critical for key grid vulnerability insights and decision-making.
As Enel Innovation has stated, the identification of critical climatic phenomena by geographic area, risk assessment, and vulnerability assessment of assets are crucial for long-term network planning. Results confirm that with these kinds of innovative solutions, network planners can add other variables, such as those provided by Copernicus, to enhance network resilience.
Next Steps
Following this pilot project, Planetek and Enel will carry out deeper analysis of the benefits and potential use of the solution. This collaboration underscores how innovative use of space data can decrease the impact of natural disasters such as floods and wildfires on energy grids, increasing energy resilience.
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