Adequacy and reliability cost/worth implications of nonutility generation

The electrical energy component provided by conventional generating sources is expected to decline slightly in the future due to environmental concerns and the penetration of new sources of energy. Renewable forms of energy such as nonutility generation (NUG) and cogeneration will increase their market share of the total energy mix as a result of the energy policies currently being adopted by many governments and power utilities around the world, A significant portion of future power plant investments will be made by NUG and cogeneration industries, therefore, the task of evaluating the merits and demerits of such options is becoming an important function in the power utility system planning. The NUGs and cogeneration facilities are normally small generating capacity units injected at load points within the system. The reliability and economic implications of capacity additions from independent power producers (IPP) can be quite significant. The paper discusses the impacts of NUGs on the adequacy and reliability cost/worth indices in a generating capacity system and the cost of customer interruptions in a composite system adequacy assessment