META-GRID: cliMate rEsilience assessmenT and Adaptation of the European power GRID

The European power grid is the backbone of our society. Climate hazards, exacerbated by climate change, trigger at least one-third of power outages in Europe, leading to significant direct and indirect socioeconomic losses. Network extensions and ageing infrastructure further increase the power grid vulnerability. Hence, power operators and regulatory agencies must understand and quantify the resilience of the power grid infrastructure against windstorms, snowstorms and floods based on well-informed fragility and restoration models. Currently, the available models for power grid assets in the EU lag behind compared to other infrastructures. META GRID aims to fill this acknowledged gap, by applying a multi-disciplinary and practice-oriented methodology that advances resilience assessments at Pan-European level, considering various climate adaptation investments. Novel fragility and restoration functions will be generated, based on extensive numerical modelling, evidence from previous failures, climatic projections and input from experts. Win-win-win and low-regret adaptation investments will be exploited to cope with climate change. A freely accessible web-based toolkit will be developed to incorporate the fragility and restoration models and the resilience mapping which intends to evaluate the impact of investments in two critical EU regions. Under the MSCA programme, the Fellow will engage in multidisciplinary research on infrastructure resilience by joining the Brunel University London (host), with complementary training on climate data analysis and EU policy at the Joint Research Centre (JRC), and collaboration with the industry (Électricité de France) and KIOS (Cyprus) research centre. In line with the new EU Resilience Directive and Strategic Plan, META-GRID has a direct industrial and societal impact by advancing EU power grid resilience assessment and decision-making. Enhancing the services offered by power operators increases peoples’ safety and well-being.