Understanding the Implications of Post-COVID Corporate Policies on the Power Grid Using DC Optimal Power Flow

COVID-19 led to dramatic shifts in the world economy. The virus forced governments from across the globe to ask people to stay indoors to contain its spread. A new drift occurred in corporate policies as millions started working from home (WFH), creating a permanent change in lifestyle and people’s outlook toward their workplace. Even four years after the pandemic hit, WFH policies continue to acquire favor in offices. As more people stay indoors, the increasing residential electric loads make it important to analyze the shift in electricity consumption patterns to maintain the grid’s stability across cities. This research paper analyzes the city of Austin, Texas, a growing metropolis in the United States (US) to determine how growing residential electricity demand impacts its electricity grid. It answers whether the present power grid can endure the changes in corporate working policies that were set in motion during the pandemic. A DC Optimal Power Flow (DC-OPF) is performed on a synthetic 162-bus sub-transmission dataset of the city by increasing the residential load influx at different substations. The grid serves 307,236 customers through 140 substations and 39 generation plants. The base loads of the nodes are scaled to replicate Austin’s 2019 peak demand record of 2810 MW. The results show that the synthetic grid can sustain a maximum of 35.28% increase from the peak load before saturation of its current installed capacity.