IIT Gandhinagar researchers develop comprehensive framework to reduce damage to power transmission systems during cyclones

The IITGN team used damage-cum-wind speed data of Cyclone Fani in Odisha to develop a fragility model for towers, which helps assess the functionality of the network and the influence of strategic interventions on the same

The damage to the power transmission and distribution systems due to the increased frequency and intensity of cyclones triggered by climate change and their consequent impact at various levels is a major cause of concern for coastal regions of India.

Odisha, one of the most cyclone-prone states in the eastern part of the country, has suffered economic losses and critical infrastructure damages worth thousands of crores in the past few years because of recurrent and severe cyclones.

In such scenarios in coastal regions, the power supply is the most significant infrastructure because it directly affects the functioning of other essential infrastructural systems such as communication, water supply, wastewater systems, transportation, and so on.

Therefore, it is desirable to strengthen the power transmission and distribution systems in such a way that they incur very less damage to minimise the overall loss of functionality under future cyclones.

Taking cognisance of this evolving grave scenario, a team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN), comprising Surender V Raj (MTech Student), Professor Udit Bhatia, and Professor Manish Kumar, studied Odisha's power transmission network damaged during Cyclone Fani in 2019, with a focus on the vulnerability of individual towers to strong winds generated during cyclones, and developed a comprehensive framework that can help curtail overall losses in functionality to a substantial extent.

Their integrated approach opens up fresh possibilities for actionable engineering and strategic policy interventions in any vulnerable coastal regions of the country. The findings of this work have been recently published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction by Elsevier: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212420922001765.

Based on the data collected from the Odisha Power Transmission Corporation Limited (OPTCL) about damaged transmission towers due to Cyclone Fani and the estimated maximum cyclonic wind speeds at the locations of these towers using a radial wind profile model, the team assessed the damage probabilities for more than 41 thousand power transmission towers.