Incorporation and effects of different supporting policies in multi-area generation system reliability assessment

A new method for multi-area generation system reliability has been developed at the University of Saskatchewan. It is based on direct sampling of generating unit states, clustering and sampling of load states and a linear programming model for multi-area reliability evaluation. Area load uncertainty and correlation can be considered using a correlative distributed sampling technique. Reliability sensitivity indices of both overall system and area to area generation and tie line capacities can be calculated. A wide variety of supporting policies can be easily incorporated in this basic methodology. The authors examine the incorporation of different supporting policies and their effects on multi-area system reliability indices. Case studies of two test systems indicate that different supporting policies create different area reliability indices. It is therefore important to incorporate the supporting policy which is used in actual operation to obtain area indices which are consistent with reality