Risk assessment methodologies: factors to consider

Summary form only given. The reliability of the North American electric power system has been so high that the rare occurrences of major blackouts have been prominent national and even international news items. As damaging as these blackouts have been, much worse events are possible. Under several different types of circumstances, electric power system could be damaged well beyond the level of normal design criteria for maintaining reliability. However, conventional electric utility planning and operating practices are based on an approach of identifying and simulate credible contingency scenarios against individual assets. These scenarios typically do not include risk management factors, such as balancing the potential threats with known vulnerabilities and probable consequences; nor do they fully take into account external factors that may be represented by the simultaneous disruption of multiple assets or cross sector dependencies. This presentation will present factors for the power system engineer to consider for including risk management concepts into planning and operational decisions.