Abstract
With increasing human dependence on electricity and increasing energy
demand, electrical infrastructure has emerged to be one of the most
critical services. On the other hand, climate-change driven extreme
events progressively increase in frequency and intensity. This is one of
the main reasons for making the power grid more resilient to extreme
events during which uninterrupted power supply is crucial in keeping the
consequences of the extreme event limited. The first step towards making
the power grid more resilient is to evaluate the probabilities of
failure for all assets at risk from the extreme events.
Thus, this paper presents the a methodology to calibrate fragility
curves. The strength of the proposed approach is its ability to
calibrate the fragility curves utilizing limited data, which is the most
common constraint in carrying out such analyses. This paper describes
the calibration of transmission tower fragility curves for Puerto Rico
utilizing only damage reports for hurricane Maria. That, combined with
Puerto Rico’s wind modeling & geographic information system, this study
also calibrates fragility curves for transmission towers made with four
different construction materials.