Reliability analysis of smart-grid generation pools

A smart grid comprises of several genres of generating units; DG sets, wind turbines, solar plants and the like. Depending on the contingent power situation at any given time, it is expedient on the part of the system operator to extract optimum generation from all the units. Unit Commitment (UC) techniques can be applied in such a situation. Each of these units has associated variables like continuous ratings, start-up and shut-down characteristics, failure and repair rates, reliability indices etc. UC has been explored in depth for many years. Its application to smart grids is complex owing to the disparate characteristics of the different power plants within the smart grid. It is proposed to reduce the complexity by introducing redundant state analysis. It weeds out the redundant states that arise by the combination of failures and repairs on this pool of machines. It is based on the concept of sequential machines in the context of digital electronics.