IEEE Electrification - December 2020 - 121

Viewpoint

(continued from page 124)

Airport suffered an 11-h power
outage caused by a circuit breaker failure, leading to 1,400 flight
cancelations. Delta Air Lines estimated its revenue loss to be
US$25-US$50 million. Following
that event, La Guardia Airport,
Los Angeles International Airport, and Orange County Airport
experienced similar situations of
different magnitudes and with
varying impacts. Utility infrastructure failures caused all
those disruptions (reliability).
x On 8 August 2016, an outage triggered by the failure of power distribution components at a Delta
facility led the airline to cancel
1,000 flights, resulting in an estimated revenue loss of US$150
million (reliability).
x On 11 June 2013, an overloaded
transformer exploded on concourse D at Hartsfield-Jackson,
causing a power outage that lasted 2 h, 45 min. Two flights were
canceled, and roughly 35 flights
were impacted by delays averaging 30 min (safety).
Fleet and building electrification is
a solution to improve transportation
and energy infrastructure, economics, and safety, and it would benefit
the environment. However, building
and fleet electrification introduces
new demand for power, which
increases airports' utility expenses.
Growth in the demand for electricity,
along with rate increases, discourages airport decision makers from
moving forward with this solution.
Many airports have been working to
deploy distributed energy resources
(DERs) to address this concern. On 25
May 2015, San Diego International
Airport commissioned 3.3 MW of
solar energy production, which
annually saves the facility US$8 million and eliminates 3,700 metric tons
of carbon pollution (economics and
the environment).
Improving airport electricity infrastructure resilience and reliability,

promoting airport electrification of
fleets and buildings, and deploying
DERs requires the application of
emerging technologies and workforces that are familiar with the operation and maintenance of these
different puzzles. Similar to public
sectors, airport infrastructure is operated by unionized workers with little
or no desire to operate and maintain
emerging technologies. Additionally,
airport decision makers prefer not to
take the risk of introducing emerging
technologies and systems.
In summary, airports are hesitant to
move forward with upgrading to a
resilient and reliable electricity infrastructure, DERs, and electrification as a
solution to safety, economic, and environmental concerns because of the
additional capital and operating expenditures that would be required and
because of the risks and other operation- and maintenance-related issues
that arise from the application of

Figure 2. Mehdi Ganji is the IEEE Smart
City R&D Committee chair.

emerging technologies. One solution,
transportation energy as a service, provides airports with SEERR benefits and
eliminates the risks and the operation
and maintenance expenses and challenges introduced by emerging technologies, while offering a higher quality
of service to end users.

Airport Microgrids
Similar to the way smart cities use
data and communication (Figure 2),

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IEEE Electrification - December 2020

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