As our electric power distribution infrastructure has aged, considerable investment has been applied to modernizing the electrical power grid through weatherization and in deployment of real-time monitoring systems. A key question is whether or not these investments are reducing the number and duration of power outages, leading to improved reliability. Statistical methods are applied to analyze electrical disturbance data (from the Department of Energy, DOE) and reliability index data (from state utility public service commission regulators) to detect signs of improvement. The number of installed smart meters provided by several utilities is used to determine whether the number of smart meters correlate with a reduction in outage frequency. Indication emerged that the number of power outages may be decreasing over time. The magnitude of power loss has decreased from 2003 to 2007, and behaves cyclically from 2008 to 2014, with a few outlier points in both groups. The duration also appears to be decreasing between 2003-2014. Large blackout events exceeding 5 GW continue to be rare, and certain power outage events are seasonally dependent. There was a linear relationship between the number of customers and the magnitude of a power outage event. However, no relationship was found between the magnitude of power outages and time to restore power. The frequency of outages maybe decreasing as the number of installed smart meters has increased. Recommendations for inclusion of additional metrics, changes to formatting and semantics of datasets currently provided by federal and state regulators are made to help aid researchers in performing more effective analysis. Confounding variables and lack of information that has made the analysis diffcult is also discussed.

Electric energy is part of our lives. We use electric energy everyday in our lives at home or work. The use ranges from home lighting to using computers or traffic lights. Electric energy became the indispensable part of our days. Electric energy is included in the fields of critical infrastructure which is essential to maintain safety and running the country. Power cut of critical infrastructure jeopardize the common being of inhabitants and also the safety of this region. Critical infrastructure is based in the Czech law of crisis management nb. 240/2000Cl and also in government regulation nb. 432/2010Cl about criteria of dealing crisis infrastructure. It is necessary to be prepared for every aspect of power cuts in the critical infrastructure field thoroughly as power cut can endanger human society and state. Because of the serious threat human society and state is essential to the individual areas of critical infrastructure failures to adequately prepare.Readiness to electrical power outage is a main theme of this thesis. The thesis focus on region of Cesky Krumlov located in South Bohemia, Czech Republic. Theoretical part of thesis named Power outage from the perspective of the crisis staff ORP Cesky Krumlov deals the aspects of electric energy and critical infrastructure. Reader learns about production, transport and distribution of electrical energy. Reader can also find information about power outages black outs. The thesis explains the meaning of word Infrastructure and also clarifies critical infrastructure and following protection of critical infrastructure. The thesis includes more information about critical infrastructure i.e. which documents deals with the problem of critical infrastructure, when and why the protection of critical infrastructure started and who was pioneer of the field problem. The thesis also describes the field of blackouts and gives the examples of the biggest blackouts which have every occurred in the world. The thesis reveals the cause of mentioned blackouts if the cause was human error, technical problem or overload of transmission system. The thesis shows the impact of blackouts on suffering population time they spent without electricity and how many people was affected with blackout, to complete the picture of blackouts. The last chapter is about crises staff. Reader learns about meaning of crisis staff and why and in which situations is the crisis staff in session. The thesis names and describes the crisis staffs at every level and describes the structure of crisis staff on every level government crises staff, county crisis staff and region crisis staff. The researcher part of this thesis is focused on region of Cesky Krumlov. The region is divided in municipalities and its belonging townships.The thesis gives picture about region population and its average age. The thesis also gives information about main water reservoirs and watercourses in region. The thesis mentions the leading farm economies which can be jeopardize during electric power outage. The thesis defines and analyses secondary crisis situations, which can occur during long lasting electrical power outage. The conclusion focus on the thesis research question "Is crises staff of region CeskýKrumlov prepared for the crises of electrical power outage?" The answer for the research question was ascertain by methods of risk analysing-the Checklist analysis and SWOT analysis. The research question was answered, based on these two analyses. One method was used to check the readiness for electrical power outage and following protection of region population of crisis staff of region CeskýKrumlov. The second method marks off strong and weak parts, opportunities and threats from the electrical power cut point of view. Following percentage calculation shows, what is the biggest danger for region of Cesky Krumlov in the moment of electrical power outage.

Indispensability of electricity in all areas of life, including industry, requires enterprises to be prepared for possible power outages, which would minimize impacts on the population. The aim of this thesis titled "Impacts of a power outage in great food - processing companies in the South Bohemia county" is to analyze possible impacts of power cuts in the awareness system of large food enterprises and to assess the effects it would have on the protection of the population when power outage occurs. To obtain the data for the thesis, I used a qualitative research in the form of structured interviews with employees of five large food enterprises, who are responsible for the given area. SWOT analyse was used to evaluate the interviews and a KARS method was used for the analysis of the most significant impacts of an electric power outage in the system of awareness of enterprises and in the protection of the population. The results of the research revealed a basic fact that electricity outage would mean an immediate interruption of production for the food enterprises in South Bohemia. None of the enterprises surveyed owns a standby electric power source, so the sustainability of the standby energy supply does not exist. This fact is alarming mainly from the point of view of the crisis management, because two of the surveyed enterprises are included in the Crises plan of South Bohemia and implement corresponding measures. An important factor influencing the current state of food enterprises awareness for electricity outage is undoubtedly the fact that there is no legislation in the Czech Republic at the moment, which would impose an obligation for food enterprises to prepare for electric power outages. To increase the awareness of the food enterprises for electricity outage, for example in the form back up power sources, would require considerable investments. I hope that this thesis will serve not only as a study material, but also will be a subject of discussion for food enterprises, presenting a model for a case of electric power outage.

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.

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Major disasters such as wildfire, tornado, hurricane, tropical storm, flooding cause disruptions in infrastructure systems such as power outage, disruption to water supply system, wastewater management, telecommunication failures, and transportation facilities. Disruptions in electricity infrastructures have negative impacts on sectors throughout a region, including education, medical services, financial, and recreation sectors. In this study, we introduce a novel approach to investigate the factors which can be associated with longer restoration time of power service after a hurricane. Considering restoration time as the dependent variable and utilizing a comprehensive set of county-level data, we have estimated a Generalized Accelerated Failure Time (GAFT) model that accounts for spatial dependence among observations for time to event data. The model fit improved by 12% after considering the effects of spatial correlation in time to event data. Using GAFT model and Hurricane Irma's impact on Florida as a case study, we examined: (1) differences in electric power outages and restoration rates among different types of power companies: investor-owned power companies, rural and municipal cooperatives; (2) the relationship between the duration of power outage and power system variables; (3) the relationship between the duration of power outage and socioeconomic attributes. The findings of this study indicate that counties with a higher percentage of customers served by investor-owned electric companies and lower median household income, faced power outage for a longer time. This paper identifies the key factors to predict restoration time of hurricane-induced power outages, allowing disaster management agencies to adopt strategies required for restoration process.

It is commonly agreed among energy experts that smart meters (SMs) are the key component that will facilitate the transition towards the smart grid. Fast-peace innovations in the smart metering infrastructure (AMI) are exposing countless benefits that network operators can obtain when they integrate SMs applications into their daily operations.  Following the amendment in 2017, where the Swedish government dictated that all SMs should now include new features such as remote control, higher time resolution for the energy readings and a friendly interface for customers to access their own data; network operators in Sweden are currently replacing their SMs for a new model, also called the second generation of SMs. While the replacement of meters is in progress, many utilities like Hemab are trying to reveal which technical and financial benefits the new generation of SMs will bring to their operations.    As a first step, this thesis presents the results of a series of interviews carried out with different network operators in Sweden. It is studied which functionalities have the potential to succeed in the near future, as well as those functionalities that are already being tested or fully implemeneted by some utilities in Sweden. Furthermore, this thesis analyses those obstacles and barriers that utilities encounter when trying to implement new applications using the new SMs. In a second stage, an alarm system for power interruptions and voltage-quality events (e.g., overvoltage and undervoltage) using VisionAir software and OMNIPOWER 3-phase meters is evaluated. The results from the evaluation are divided into three sections: a description of the settings and functionalities of the alarm, the outcomes from the test, and a final discussion of potential applications. This study has revealed that alarm functions, data analytics (including several methods such as load forecasting, customer segmentation and non-technical losses analysis), power quality monitoring, dynamic pricing, and load shedding have the biggest potential to succeed in Sweden in the coming years. Furthermore, it can be stated that the lack of time, prioritization of other projects in the grid and the integration of those new applications into the current system seem to be the main barrier for Swedish utilities nowadays. Regarding the alarm system, it was found that the real benefits for network operators arrive when the information coming from an alarm system is combined with a topology interface of the network and a customer notifications server. Both applications could improve customer satisfaction by significantly reducing outage time and providing customers with real-time and precise information about the problems in the grid.