Impact of Natural Gas Infrastructure on Electric Power Systems

The restructuring of electricity has introduced new risks associated with the security of natural gas infrastructure on a significantly large scale, which entails changes in physical capabilities of pipelines, operational procedures, sensors and communications, contracting (supply and transportation), and tariffs. This paper will discuss the essence of the natural gas infrastructure for supplying the ever-increasing number of gas-powered units and use security-constrained unit commitment to analyze the short-time impact of natural gas prices on power generation scheduling. The paper analyzes the impact of natural gas infrastructure contingencies on the operation of electric power systems. Furthermore, the paper examines the impact of renewable sources of energy such as pumped-storage units and photovoltaic/battery systems on power system security by reducing the dependence of electricity infrastructure on the natural gas infrastructure. A modified IEEE 118-bus with 12 combined-cycle units is presented for analyzing the gas/electric interdependency.