Power Outage Analysis

Dashboard Overview:

This dashboard provides a comprehensive analysis of power outage incidents across the United States between 2002 and 2023, with a detailed breakdown by region, state, and event categories. It highlights key metrics such as the number of power outages, demand loss, affected customers, and average restoration time.

Key Features:

1. Summary Metrics:
   • Total Power Outages: 3,595 incidents recorded.
   • Demand Loss: 1.1 MW of power.
   • Customers Affected: 297 million individuals impacted.
   • Average Restoration Time: 33 hours.
2. Detailed Insights:
   • Power Outages by Part of Day:
     • Most outages occur during the evening (56.8%), followed by the day (43.2%).
   • Top 5 Regions by Demand Loss Percentage:
     • The SERC region accounts for the highest demand loss (34.41%), followed by WECC (31.57%) and RFC (25.36%).
   • Power Outage by State:
     • A heat map highlights the most affected states, with darker regions indicating higher incidents.
   • Event Categories:
     • Severe weather is the leading cause of outages, accounting for 1,521 events, followed by physical attacks/vandalism (970) and system failures (527).
3. Time Trends:
   • Power Outages by Year:
     • A time series chart shows spikes in outages in years like 2005 and 2020, reflecting trends in weather or system vulnerabilities.
4. State-Specific Analysis (Texas Example):

• • Total Power Outages: 450 incidents.
  • Demand Loss: 114.8 MW.
  • Customers Affected: 46 million.
  • Average Restoration Time: 41 hours.
  • Top 3 Reasons for Outages in Texas:
    1. Severe weather (143 incidents).
    2. Physical attacks (69 incidents).
    3. System operations (50 incidents).

Report Insights:

1. National Trends:
   • The U.S. experiences significant power outages due to severe weather, highlighting the need for robust infrastructure.
   • The average restoration time of 33 hours indicates room for improvement in outage response times.
2. Regional and State-Specific Challenges:
   • The SERC and WECC regions face the highest demand loss, emphasizing the need for targeted investments in these areas.
   • Texas has the highest number of severe weather-related outages, suggesting the necessity of weather-resilient systems.
3. Categories of Concern:
   • Physical attacks account for 970 incidents, revealing a growing threat to power infrastructure.
   • System failures remain a major challenge, pointing to the need for modernization of the grid.
4. Yearly Analysis:

• • Peaks in outage numbers during certain years coincide with major weather events or grid vulnerabilities.

Recommendations:

1. Infrastructure Resilience:
   • Invest in weather-resistant technologies and systems to mitigate the impact of severe weather, especially in high-risk states like Texas.
2. Security Enhancements:
   • Strengthen security measures to reduce physical attacks on the power grid.
3. Grid Modernization:
   • Address system failures by upgrading aging infrastructure and adopting advanced grid management technologies.
4. Regional Strategies:
   • Focus on the SERC and WECC regions to reduce demand loss and improve customer reliability.
5. Emergency Preparedness:

• • Develop rapid response teams to decrease the average restoration time, ensuring quicker recovery from outages.