Modelling of scheduled maintenance for power system planning

The authors describe the ESCORT maintenance model which produces realistic simulations of numerous operational situations. User interaction is required to obtain a satisfactory set of rules and post-fault limits, but this can give valuable insight into future system operation. Numerical details of unsupplied energy and out of merit costs do not always compare accurately with operational reality, but the reasons are understood and the values remain useful for planning purposes. Ways of ameliorating the run time problem have been described and satisfactory performance demonstrated for a 74 line sub-system. The program is well established as a planning tool and is valuable in the hands of an experienced user