Impact of Hurricanes on Gulf Coast Electric Grid Islanding of Industrial Plants

The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of seasonal hurricanes and tropical storms on the security and delivery of electricity in Gulf Coast states' electric grid to industrial customers. The Gulf Coast in general and the state of Louisiana in particular include a relatively high number of industrial plants that are connected to the electric grid, and continuity of electricity to these industrial plants is of vital importance in flow of energy from Gulf Coast states to the rest of the nation. The purpose of this paper is to identify the tropical storms and their characteristics in the last fifty years, to determine the existing industrial plants, including their products and services, and to develop an algorithm that results in the impact of tropical storms and hurricanes on continuity of electricity to any specific industrial plant in the Gulf Coast geographical area. The study determines "islanding" of part of the grid that may result from the impact of the simulated tropical storms and would provide sufficient information to plant managers for continuing or halting their plant operation in time prior to the landing of tropical storms or hurricanes. This paper includes a summary of simulation results of 50 historical and 26 hypothetical tropical storms on selected industrial plants in the geographical area. To display the usefulness and practicality of the developed algorithm, we will include results of one case study in the state of Louisiana. Further work on use of the developed algorithm in hardening and development of resilient transmission system in Gulf Coast states will be reported in future publications.