Author(s)

Rafael Medeiros, Xufeng Xu, Elham Makram

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA.

Reliability results are important for proper planning and operation of utility companies. At the base of this method of analysis is the failure rate of the system components. In the traditional method, this probability of failure is determined by the components’ manufacturer and is considered to be constant. This study proposes a dynamic modeling of failure rate, taking the system operating conditions into consideration. With this new consideration, an IEEE test system has seven of its reliability indices quantified for comparison. The inclusion of the newly modeled failure rate leads to a worsening of 11.07% in the indices, on average. A second analysis is performed considering the presence of DG sources within the microgrid, namely PV and wind based. An improvement of 0.71% on the indices is noticed, once the DG sources are introduced. Finally, the effects of storage systems in the microgrid are investigated through a third scenario, in which two 2 MWh battery systems are introduced, and an improvement of 3.05% is noticed in the reliability indices.

Failure Rate, Microgrid, Power Flow, Reliability Assessment, Renewables, Storage

Medeiros, R. , Xu, X. and Makram, E. (2016) Assessment of Operating Condition Dependent Reliability Indices in Microgrids. Journal of Power and Energy Engineering, 4, 56-66. doi: 10.4236/jpee.2016.44006.