Several lessons were learned from the post-storm analysis of the impact of the 2021 Winter Storm Uri which had a devastating effect on Texas electricity grids. Among these lessons was the need for an increased segmentation of transmission and distribution circuits to increase flexibility and granularity by which the utilities carry out the load-shedding instructions issued by the independent system operator, ERCOT, and avoid impacting gas supplies to generators. 

This presentation summarizes the completed work, developed concepts, and findings from a detailed circuit segmentation study for Texas New Mexico Power on a Texas electricity T&D utility system. 

The proposed presentation, on a high level, will cover as follows:

1. Whether and how the utility's T&D circuits can be segmented and sectionalized to manage and rotate outages more evenly across all customers and circuits while maintaining the protections offered to critical facilities
2. The feasibility of using sectionalization, automated reclosers, and other technology to break up the circuits that host significant numbers of critical facilities into smaller segments for outage management purposes to enable more granular and flexible outage management
3. Identify feeders with critical facilities that, if equipped with facility-specific backup power systems and segmentation, can enhance the utility's outage management flexibility
4. Include an estimate of the time, capital cost, and expected improvements to load-shed management associated with the circuit segmentation study