Distribution quality of service and reliability optimal design: individual standards and regulation effectiveness

The traditional design of distribution networks does not target the satisfaction of individual quality standards such as maximal frequency and duration of customer interruptions. Yet, standards on individual quality are at the basis of most modern quality of service (QoS) regulations. In this paper, we use a matured evolutionary-based application to search for the optimum tradeoff between individual QoS and system reliability. Tradeoff results are presented to compare the traditional with the modern regulation designs and to illustrate that system optimum reliability must be decreased in order to improve individual quality at constant investment. The tradeoff sensitivity to the standards is then illustrated to discuss regulation effectiveness.