Can distributed hydrogen production improve the earthquake resilience of power systems?

Resilience planning is crucial for sustainable energy transitions, particularly in mitigating the impacts of extreme weather events and natural hazards. This study examines the integration of hydrogen as a new energy carrier, focusing on its technical flexibility and potential stresses. We connect a resilience framework comprising four phases—hazard characterization, system component vulnerability assessment, power system response, and recovery—to an energy system optimization model. This tool plans the capacity expansion with economic dispatch under contingency scenarios to calculate resilience metrics, including energy not served and generation availability. To demonstrate the methodology, a case study on New Zealand compares the effects of three hydrogen spatial distribution scenarios: concentrated, intermediate, and distributed. Results indicate that a distributed hydrogen scenario enhances resilience by reducing unserved electricity and unmet hydrogen demand while achieving the lowest total system costs. These findings support adopting a nationwide distributed hydrogen hub strategy to improve system adaptability. The proposed framework is scalable and adaptable to other countries, providing a robust tool for integrating resilience into energy planning.