Customized reduction techniques for power distribution system reliability analysis

Evaluating the reliability of networked power systems, especially distribution systems, using Markov models can be problematic and time consuming. This is due to the large number of components and states included in the reliability analysis. It is possible to reduce the number of states and the size of the Markov model matrices through a truncation technique. In this paper, different customized reduction and truncation methods are proposed and applied to the system connection matrix to reduce the number of states as used in Markov reliability analysis. The Roy Billinton Test System (RBTS) is used to illustrate the reduction process and to calculate the system average interruption frequency index (SAIFI) and the system average interruption duration index (SAIDI).