Utilization of interrupted energy assessment rates in generation and transmission system planning

One approach which can be used to determine the optimum level of electric reliability is to compare the marginal cost of providing reliability with the marginal worth of that reliability. The worth of an increment of reliability can be considered to be the change in the interruption costs associated with the change in reliability level. The authors briefly illustrate methods of using customer interruption cost data to obtain a factor which can be utilized to relate customer losses to the worth of electric service reliability in both generation and composite generation and transmission systems. This factor is designated as the interrupted energy assessment rate (IEAR). It is also illustrated how the IEAR index can be utilized in a basic generation and transmission facilities reinforcement study