IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v256y2019ics0306261919316277.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Using data from connected thermostats to track large power outages in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Meier, Alan
  • Ueno, Tsuyoshi
  • Pritoni, Marco

Abstract

The detection of power outages is an essential activity for electric utilities. A large, national dataset of Internet-connected thermostats was used to explore and illustrate the ability of Internet-connected devices to geospatially track outages caused by hurricanes and other major weather events. The method was applied to nine major outage events, including hurricanes and windstorms. In one event, Hurricane Irma, a network of about 1000 thermostats provided quantitatively similar results to detailed utility data with respect to the number of homes without power and identification of the most severely affected regions. The method generated regionally uniform outage data that would give emergency authorities additional visibility into the scope and magnitude of outages. The network of thermostat-sensors also made it possible to calculate a higher resolution version of outage duration (or SAIDI) at a level of customer-level visibility that was not previously available.

Suggested Citation

  • Meier, Alan & Ueno, Tsuyoshi & Pritoni, Marco, 2019. "Using data from connected thermostats to track large power outages in the United States," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:256:y:2019:i:c:s0306261919316277
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.113940
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261919316277
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.113940?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hines, Paul & Apt, Jay & Talukdar, Sarosh, 2009. "Large blackouts in North America: Historical trends and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5249-5259, December.
    2. Min,Brian & O'Keeffe,Zachary & Zhang,Fan, 2017. "Whose power gets cut ? using high-frequency satellite images to measure power supply irregularity," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8131, The World Bank.
    3. de Nooij, Michiel & Koopmans, Carl & Bijvoet, Carlijn, 2007. "The value of supply security: The costs of power interruptions: Economic input for damage reduction and investment in networks," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 277-295, March.
    4. LaCommare, Kristina Hamachi & Eto, Joseph H. & Dunn, Laurel N. & Sohn, Michael D., 2018. "Improving the estimated cost of sustained power interruptions to electricity customers," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 1038-1047.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sapountzoglou, Nikolaos & Lago, Jesus & De Schutter, Bart & Raison, Bertrand, 2020. "A generalizable and sensor-independent deep learning method for fault detection and location in low-voltage distribution grids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    2. Omar Mata & Juana Isabel Méndez & Pedro Ponce & Therese Peffer & Alan Meier & Arturo Molina, 2023. "Energy Savings in Buildings Based on Image Depth Sensors for Human Activity Recognition," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-22, January.
    3. Lee, Zachary E. & Max Zhang, K., 2022. "Unintended consequences of smart thermostats in the transition to electrified heating," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    4. Vivian Do & Heather McBrien & Nina M. Flores & Alexander J. Northrop & Jeffrey Schlegelmilch & Mathew V. Kiang & Joan A. Casey, 2023. "Spatiotemporal distribution of power outages with climate events and social vulnerability in the USA," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Johansson, Bengt, 2013. "A broadened typology on energy and security," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 199-205.
    2. Graziano, Marcello & Gunther, Peter & Gallaher, Adam & Carstensen, Fred V. & Becker, Brian, 2020. "The wider regional benefits of power grids improved resilience through tree-trimming operations evidences from Connecticut, USA," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    3. Yuan, Peng & Pu, Yuran & Liu, Chang, 2021. "Improving electricity supply reliability in China: Cost and incentive regulation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    4. Dunn, Laurel N. & Sohn, Michael D. & LaCommare, Kristina Hamachi & Eto, Joseph H., 2019. "Exploratory analysis of high-resolution power interruption data reveals spatial and temporal heterogeneity in electric grid reliability," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 206-214.
    5. Ashish Kumar Sedai, Rabindra Nepal, and Tooraj Jamasb, 2022. "Electrification and Socio-Economic Empowerment of Women in India," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    6. Moroni, Stefano & Antoniucci, Valentina & Bisello, Adriano, 2016. "Energy sprawl, land taking and distributed generation: towards a multi-layered density," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 266-273.
    7. Carvallo, Juan Pablo & Frick, Natalie Mims & Schwartz, Lisa, 2022. "A review of examples and opportunities to quantify the grid reliability and resilience impacts of energy efficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    8. Vivian Do & Heather McBrien & Nina M. Flores & Alexander J. Northrop & Jeffrey Schlegelmilch & Mathew V. Kiang & Joan A. Casey, 2023. "Spatiotemporal distribution of power outages with climate events and social vulnerability in the USA," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    9. Künneke, Rolf & Groenewegen, John & Ménard, Claude, 2010. "Aligning modes of organization with technology: Critical transactions in the reform of infrastructures," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 494-505, September.
    10. Meyer, Roland & Gore, Olga, 2015. "Cross-border effects of capacity mechanisms: Do uncoordinated market design changes contradict the goals of the European market integration?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 9-20.
    11. Hagspiel, Simeon, 2017. "Reliable Electricity: The Effects of System Integration and Cooperative Measures to Make it Work," EWI Working Papers 2017-13, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    12. Bajo-Buenestado, Raúl, 2017. "Welfare implications of capacity payments in a price-capped electricity sector: A case study of the Texas market (ERCOT)," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 272-285.
    13. Elie Bouri & Joseph El Assad, 2016. "The Lebanese Electricity Woes: An Estimation of the Economical Costs of Power Interruptions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-12, July.
    14. Woo, C.K. & Ho, T. & Shiu, A. & Cheng, Y.S. & Horowitz, I. & Wang, J., 2014. "Residential outage cost estimation: Hong Kong," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 204-210.
    15. Mudasser, Muhammad & Yiridoe, Emmanuel K. & Corscadden, Kenneth, 2015. "Cost-benefit analysis of grid-connected wind–biogas hybrid energy production, by turbine capacity and site," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 573-582.
    16. de Nooij, Michiel & Lieshout, Rogier & Koopmans, Carl, 2009. "Optimal blackouts: Empirical results on reducing the social cost of electricity outages through efficient regional rationing," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 342-347, May.
    17. Bajo-Buenestado, Raúl, 2021. "The effect of blackouts on household electrification status: Evidence from Kenya," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    18. Wolf, André & Wenzel, Lars, 2016. "Regional diversity in the costs of electricity outages: Results for German counties," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(PB), pages 195-205.
    19. Alastaire S na ALINSATO, 2015. "Economic Valuation of Electrical Service Reliability for Households in Developing Country: A Censored Random Coefficient Model Approach," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 5(1), pages 352-359.
    20. Ian Dobson & Janghoon Kim & Kevin R. Wierzbicki, 2010. "Testing Branching Process Estimators of Cascading Failure with Data from a Simulation of Transmission Line Outages," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 650-662, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:256:y:2019:i:c:s0306261919316277. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.