Prediction of customer load point service reliability worth estimates in an electric power system

The basic concepts associated with quantitative reliability evaluation are reasonably well accepted in the electric power industry. The justification of new facilities and system modifications now normally includes specific reference to reliability and one approach that is receiving considerable attention is the assessment of the societal worth or benefit associated with power system reliability, and conversely the costs to consumers of power supply interruptions. The paper presents three different methods for evaluating system customer load point reliability worth factors designated interrupted energy assessment rates (IEAR). These factors consider the influence of outages in all parts of the electric power system. The developed IEAR can be used with the available adequacy indices to assess the severity associated with unsupplied energy owing to supply interruptions. The IEAR can be used as customer related indices in making decisions regarding load curtailment philosophies and reliability related rate setting. The concepts of using a customer damage function in association with customer reliability indices are presented and illustrated using a reliability test system