Today's globalized world is much more vulnerable than we are often willing to admit. We live in a society which is considerably dependent on a stable supply of electricity. Potential large power outage also called blackout may be a very dangerous situation for our community. Usually we don't realize all consequences there can be for our everyday life, people's health, the security and the economy of the country. Despite the efforts of the responsible authorities, the complications for the population can be very serious. The effects of such unfortunate event can be reduced in a variety of ways. An option is to support an informed society that can take care of itself in times of crisis. This text is focused on the current approach to raising and maintaining awareness of the people for masive power outage not only in the Czech Republic. The aim of the thesis is to compare the information environment of the Czech Republic with the situation in neighboring Germany. It is important to keep on mind that many important systems serving under normal conditions to inform the population will not work when such an event occurs. It can be necessary to proceed with alternative solutions and communication channels. In the education context, it's realisic to inform the majority of the population only about the most important measures and appropriate patterns of blackout behavior. With the restoration of energy supplies, the task of informing the population doesn't end. By selecting key information, this work could contribute to the society.

At present, due to the use of different technologies, it is hard to think of any human activity that does not demand electric power. It is necessary to be prepared for of large-scale long-term blackouts. Possible scenarios of the occurrence of such a crisis situation must be analyzed and the crisis management must be prepared; primarily to minimize the impact on the lives and health of the population, their property and also natural environment. The objective of the thesis was to identify the operational readiness of regional centers of Emergency Medical Services in the Czech Republic for the possibility of blackouts and to create a survey of power supply possibilities to the operating center of the Emergency Medical Services. The questionnaire was focused on the analysis of operational readiness of regional centers for total blackout, on the framework of their technical support in alternative energy production and its time sustainability. The documents analysis included a pattern plan of the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Czech Republic and an operational plan for the occurrence of a crisis situation - large-scale electric power supply disturbances, and other internal regional documents concerning the situation during a blackout. The outcomes of the thesis can be used as a background material for the comparison of emergency blackout preparedness in international environment. They can be used to achieve certain standards in the field of sustainable alternative energy supply of Emergency Medical Services centers.

The goal of this thesis is to simulate the course of events during Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant blackout and to determine the optimal process of cooling down the cold branches of the primary circuit loops to secure the maximum amount of the primary fuel needed for the residual heat outlet so that the operating staff has as much time as possible for renewing the electric power supply. The first part of the thesis describes nuclear power plants built in the Czech Republic and in the world as well as reactor blocks whose construction is being considered. The detailed description of Dukovany’s steam generator is shared in chapter three. Following chapter summarizes blackouts that occurred at power plants around the world, events that might have led to blackouts in the Czech Republic, and it also describes current approach to blackout problematics at Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant. Chapters six and seven contain the core of the thesis. That includes detailed description of a mathematical model explaining the behaviour of a reactor block during blackout as well as the analysis of the results found.

Diploma thesis analyses the potential of Cyber Threats towards critical energy infrastructure in terms of network theories originating in graph theories, complex networks and technological possibilities how to compromise security of networks belonging to critical infrastructure. By the analysis of defined dependent and independent variables the author finds out how networks behave under which circumstances, what means exist in the field of network security and if adopted measures to increase security are in accordance with the effort of creation safe and decentralized system of critical energy infrastructure. Main emphasis is put on the concept of smart grids as possible solution of decentralization. In these terms technical means of security are studied especially with emphasis on SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) systems and the Internet as one of the essential component of communication in modern communication technologies.

Severe disturbances in a large electrical interconnection cause a large mismatch in generation and load in the network, leading to frequency instability. If the mismatch is not rectified quickly, the system may disintegrate into multiple islands. Though the Automatic Generation Controls (AGC) perform well in correcting frequency deviation over a period of minutes, they are ineffective during a rolling blackout. While traditional Under Frequency Load Shedding Schemes (UFLS) perform quick control actions to arrest frequency decline in an islanded network, they are not designed to prevent unplanned islanding. The proposed Intelligent Load Shedding algorithm combines the effectiveness of AGC Scheme by observing tie line flows and the speed of operation of the UFLS Scheme by shedding loads intelligently, to preserve system integrity in the event of an evolving cascading failure. The proposed scheme detects and estimates the size of an event by monitoring the tie lines of a control area using Wide Area Measurement Systems (WAMS) and initiates load shedding by removing loads whose locations are optimally determined by a sensitivity analysis. The amount and location of the load shedding depends on the location and size of the initiating event, making the proposed algorithm adaptive and selective. Case Studies have been presented to show that control actions of the proposed scheme can directly mitigate a cascading blackout. / Ph. D.

Mit dem Forschungsprojekt wurde das Ziel verfolgt, den Einfluss des Münchner Stromausfalls im Winter 2012 auf die Zahlungsbereitschaft für Versorgungssicherheit sowie auf die Akzeptanz für Erneuerbare Energien zu untersuchen. Das Ausfallereignis in München bot sich in besonderer Weise für eine Untersuchung an, da etwa die Hälfte des Stadtgebiets betroffen war, sodass eine Trennung nach beeinträchtigten und nicht-beeinträchtigen Haushalten aus einer nahezu homogenen Stichprobe ermöglicht wurde. Im Zentrum der Untersuchung steht eine repräsentative Bevölkerungsumfrage, die zwei Monate nach dem Ausfallereignis durchgeführt wurde. Dazu wurden über das Telefonlabor der Technischen Universität Dresden 526 Personen aus Münchner Privathaushalten befragt. Nach unseren Befunden beeinflusst eine kleine Versorgungsunterbrechung, wie in München, die Einstellung hinsichtlich der Erneuerbaren Energien nur unwesentlich. Allerdings können wir mit Hilfe der kontingenten Bewertungsmethode einen signifikanten Einfluss des Ausfalls auf die Zahlungsbereitschaft für eine sichere Versorgung nachweisen. Darüber ergeben sich aus unserer Studie Erkenntnisse für die Umsetzung der Energiewende: Beispielsweise wurde der Wert für die letzte gelieferte Kilowattstunde Strom (Value of Lost Load), das Last-Abschaltpotenzial von Haushalten sowie die Akzeptanz der Höhe der EEG-Umlage ermittelt.

Disturbances in the supply of electric power can have serious implications for everyday life as well as for national (homeland) security. A power outage can be initiated by natural disasters, adverse weather, technical failures, human errors, sabotage, terrorism, and acts of war. The vulnerability of a system is described as a sensitivity to threats and hazards, and is measured by P (Q(t) > q), i.e. the probability of at least one disturbance with negative societal consequences Q larger than some critical value q, during a given period of time (0,t]. The aim of the thesis is to present methods for quantitative vulnerability analysis of electric power delivery networks to enable effective strategies for prevention, mitigation, response, and recovery to be developed. Paper I provides a framework for vulnerability assessment of infrastructure systems. The paper discusses concepts and perspectives for developing a methodology for vulnerability analysis, and gives examples related to power systems. Paper II analyzes the vulnerability of power delivery systems by means of statistical analysis of Swedish disturbance data. It is demonstrated that the size of large disturbances follows a power law, and that the occurrence of disturbances can be modeled as a Poisson process. Paper III models electric power delivery systems as graphs. Statistical measures for characterizing the structure of two empirical transmission systems are calculated, and a structural vulnerability analysis is performed, i.e. a study of the connectivity of the graph when vertices and edges are disabled. Paper IV discusses the origin of power laws in complex systems in terms of their structure and the dynamics of disturbance propagation. A branching process is used to model the structure of a power distribution system, and it is shown that the disturbance size in this analytical network model follows a power law. Paper V shows how the interaction between an antagonist and the defender of a power system can be modeled as a game. A numerical example is presented, and it is studied if there exists a dominant defense strategy, and if there is an optimal allocation of resources between protection of components, and recovery. / QC 20100831

This diploma thesis is aimed at assessing the provision of emergency electric power supply to hospitals in South Bohemia. The chapter titled Present State briefly characterises the generation of electric power, the history of power plants in the Czech Republic, the power distribution system, it lists the basic elements of the power distribution system, including its stability and security. Among other things, it presents the term of blackout and its potential impact on the society. Furthermore, this chapter deals with the infrastructure in relation with the critical infrastructure and its history. At the end of this chapter, the functioning of health service is mentioned in relation to emergency situations, including the emergency sources used by hospitals. The research made use of the qualitative method of data collection and the data was acquired through the technique of controlled interviews and a secondary analysis of data from competent South Bohemian hospital staff who is responsible for or deal with the issue or providing emergency power supplies.

The thesis is concerned in problem that can occure after a blackout. The South Bohemia region was chosen as the area of blackout impacts. The theoretical part of the work describes a critical infrastructure, whose part electrical energy is. It also learns about the electricity supply system in the Czech Republic and explains what is considered to be a blackout. The research is made in two levels. First there are processed baground researches of selected blackouts in the world and consequently the impacts of possible blackout in the South Bohemia are examined. The method of guided interview was used to make a questionnaire. The guided interviews were made with a few specialists. The questionnaire results are analysed and the possible consequences of blackout in the South Bohemia region are described. The main purpose of the work was ? The description of a blackout in the South Bohemia region?. The aim was fulfilled and a blackout in the South Bohemia region was described. The thesis worked with two hypothesis. The first one was ?A blackout strongly influences the population? a this hypothesis was proved by my research. The second hypothesis sounded ?Electrical energy is a strategical part of a critical infrastructure in the South Bohemia region?, and this hypothesis was also proved on basis of my results.

The electric power is one of the key products without which functioning of our society would be hard to imagine. The electricity distribution network is an interconnected system comprising of a manufacturing part producing electricity from various sources, a transmission system of conductors and equipment, distribution systems of high and low voltage, and of technical control stations suitably distributed to control the whole network. Energy security means ensuring continuity of necessary supplies of energy and energy services to accommodate the protected interests of the state. A long-term electric power failure may have serious consequences for the state security, for providing for basic subsistence needs of the population, individual?s health or the state economy. For their maintenance under ordinary as well as emergency conditions it is particularly necessary to ensure functioning of critical infrastructure. The aim of this thesis is to examine the level of preparedness of the subjects within the critical infrastructure for a long-term interruption of electric power supplies and to create a draft of an emergency preparedness plan of a subject within the critical infrastructure focused on a long-term electric power failure. The research part of the thesis has two parts. The first part includes processing and analysis of the data acquired though a questionnaire survey. The second one presents a draft of the emergency preparedness plan of a subject within the critical infrastructure. The results of the questionnaire survey showed a good readiness of the critical infrastructure for a long-term, extensive electric power failure, which confirms the set hypothesis. The thesis introduces the public, particularly the subjects of the critical infrastructure, to the possibilities of occurrence of long-term, extensive electric power failures, with available prevention of such emergency situations and their preparation, planning and solving. The presented emergency plan draft should help with preparation of an emergency readiness plan of a subject within the critical infrastructure, including outlining the ways to solve emergency situations that may arise in relation with a power failure, and thus to improve protection of the critical infrastructure elements.