Impact of manual versus automatic transfer switching on the reliability levels of an industrial plant

Detailed reliability modeling and analysis of industrial plants provides an estimate of the frequency and duration of load point interruptions. The duration of repair and switching activities necessary to restore a unique power system configuration to a normal operating state from an outage state has a significant impact on the power system reliability levels of industrial power systems. This paper presents and discusses the significant variations in the frequency and duration of load point interruptions at an industrial plant due to manual and automatic switching activities. Three case studies with different percentages of open and short-circuit failure modes of circuit breakers and fuses will also be presented and discussed for both manual and automatic switching restoration activities.