Distribution System Reliability in a Deregulated Environment: A Case Study

James A. Momoh, Fellow, IEEE, and Robert A. Sowah, Non-Member

Center for Energy Systems and Controls
Department of Electrical Engineering
Howard University
Washington, D.C., 20059

Abstract
ne deregulation and restructuring of the electric utility !he national grid due to the inability of the utility company to
industry promise the delivery of power and invest in capacity expansion of the existing network.
energy services. A number of new distributed generated
technologies are currently available offering a combination of Rapid technological development led to larger and more
performance and flexibility. Distributed generation is favored efficient generating plants built farther and farther from the
particularly because of increased energy efticiency and end-user. Large regional power transmission networks
reduced emission. These distributed generation technologies delivered this power to the local distribution systems and
may offer improved service reliability and better economies finally to the end-user. The industry was regulated so that
from the customer's viewpoint, whereas, from the utilities these changes could occur efficiently without wasteful
point of view, the economic benefit needs to be balanced duplication of facilities, and the economic role of distrilJuted
against safety and operational concerns. In this paper, generation became much more limited. Since the 1970s in the
distributed generation system reliability is evaluated to have United States, however, large central nuclear and coal-fired
balancing reliability and cost benefits using industrial power stations have become increasingly expensive and more
reliability software, Distributed Industrial System Reliability difficult to site and require longer time to build. At the same
Evaluation algorithm (DISREL) for validation of the time, technological development has improved the cost and
reliability assessment module and tested on a 32-bus performance of smaller, modular power generation options -
distribution system and simulated for various case studies. The from 300 megawatt (MW) gas-fued combined cycle power
distribution system reliability is evaluated based on various plants down to individual customer generation of as little as a
reliability indices. few kilowatts. The electric utility industry is currently
restructuring to allow customers to competitively select the
optimum combination of energy resources to meet their needs.
Keywords: Distribution System, Reliability Evaluation,
Reliability indices, Distributed Generation.
The services provided can he described as follows:

1.0 Introduction Energy -providing all the customer's kilowatt-hours

Capacity - meeting the customer's peak load
Technical and economic changes in the power industry requirements
continue to encourage interest in distributed generation (small Reserve - maintaining additional capacity for
generators 500 kW to 25 MW) in distribution systems. fluctuations and emergencies
Restructuring of the power industry is creating opportunities Reliability -the end result of the level of inve.,i'tment
for emerging energy services providers, stakeholders in the in facilities, labor and management
gas industry, related technology developers and other non- Power quality - voltage and frequency support and
traditional energy providers to invest in and operate reactive power
distributed generation resources. These players are interested Back-up and standby service - support for customers
in, among other possibilities, the chance to contract directly with partial generating capability.
with individual or groups of consumers and so may prefer to
site distributed generators close to or in load centers. A host of As customem and energy service providers develop the
altemative technologies such as fuel cells, storage freedom to contract separately for these individual services,
technologies, photovoltaic cells and possibly wind turbines are there may he a greater opportunity to use distributed
approaching commercial economic viability. They are generation as a means to optimize the sum of services
inherently compact and well suited for siting close to loads in required. DG applications can be designed to meet :I wide
the distribution systems. Co-generation facilities, which are variety of service requirements and fulfill the needs of many
sited directly at loads, generally in the distribution system, customers and energy service providers.
also continue to he of interest.
If DG systems are used for the provision of on-site power
Building smaller power generation units within the localized continuously; it tends to utilize the waste heat of the
area of use is known as Distributed Generation (DG)[2]. They production process. They are applied as standby generating
have served remote communities who do not have access to units in case of emergency, thereby increasing the reliability

0-7803-81 10-6/03/$17.00 02003 EEE 562

of the system. In some applications, they are used as grid
support to defer capital investment needed for expansion of
the network. The nature of some DG systems tends to be more
environmentally friendly.

DG systems include the use of fuel cells, renewables,

microturbines, reciprocating engines and combustion turbines
as well as PV arrays and wind turbines. Even though the
impact of DG's is promising, they have certain limitations Elecuical Electrid
regarding interfacing with the transmission or distribution Loads DG Interface Loads
system.
4 U,.*, BILZ 4
In [8] Baren and Hsu discuss voltageNAR control at
distribution substation using a supervisory type control
scheme that has been developed to improve the performance
of both the voltage regulator controller and substation
capacitor controller without considering the reconfiguration of
the distribution network. Rolim and Machado [9] present
switching as a control option without taking into consideration
the reconfiguration for reliability, loss reduction or load
balancing. In [IO], Nara and Hayashi address renewable
energy systems by considering their location appropriately on
the demand side of the distribution system in order to reduce
distribution losses. Tabu search bas been used for the optimal
allocation and size of the Distributed Generation without
taking into account the reliability of the power system. Electrical Loads Electrical

In [ 1 I], distribution system losses are calculated using Fuzzy

Logic. The application of fuzzy logic rules ensures the
accuracy of calculated system losses. The losses were not
compared with the well-known methods. In [51, a rule based
system is discussed for distribution automation. Feeder-load
transferring and feeder-load balancing are discussed without
discussing the reliability and reconfiguration issues.
Fig 1. Network diagram showing the interfacing of Distributed
In this paper, distributed generation system reliability of the Generation.
distribution system is evaluated using Distributed Industrial
System Reliability Evaluation (DISREL) for validation of the
reliability assessment module and is tested on a 32-bus 2.0 Case Study for Distributed Generation Impact on
distributed system for various case studies. DISREL calculates Distribution Systems
a set of reliability indices, loadenergy curtailed, the cost of
outages, and the cost of intemption to a customer based on 2.1 Test System Description
component outage data.
The test system used for simulation is a hypothetical 32-bus
The reliability of the distribution system is evaluated based on radial distribution system. The 32-bus distribution system
the various reliability indices e.g. System Average shown in Rg. 2, has the following system parameters:
Interruption Index (SAET), System Average Interruption
Duration Index (SAIDI), Customer Average Interruption One voltage source at 12.66 kV voltage level and 100
Duration Index (CADI), Average Service Availability Index MVA base supply
(ASAI), Average Service Unavailability Index (ASUI), 33 nodes (including the source node)
Expected Unserved Energy ( E m ) and Expected Outage Cost One main feeder with three branches
(EOC). 32 feeders with normally closed (sectionalizing)
switches as shown in Fig. 2.
The impact of EUE is analyzed by varying the distributed
generation at different nodes with or without circuit breakers. It is proposed that DG will be installed at node 15 for a case
study to evaluate the overall effect, in addition to installing
protective devices such as circuit breakers and sectionalizers.

563
 Step 5
Prepare reliability data file that includes components failure
rate, maintenance rate and time, repair time, stuck probability
ands switching time.
Step 6.
Prepare load curve data file that can he an annual peak load, a
seasonal peak load, a monthly peak load or a daily peak load
curve.
Step I
Run DISREL for different designed cases
Step 8. Summarize DISREL output in terms of customer side
reliability indices, systems reliability indices and outage costs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate thereliability

impact of (PV Arrays) DG on distribution systems. The
prominent indices for the evaluation of the DG impac:t are
summarized below.

2.3 Indices for Reliability Assessment

2.3.1 System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI)

Defined as:
p
Total Number of Customers Served

=-
CAN;
Key:
E Ni
where
1;is the failure rate in failurdyr and Ni is the number
of customen of load point i.
The units are customer-intemptionslyearlcustomer

2.3.2. System Average Interruption Duralion Index (SAIDI)

Defined as:
Sum of Customer Intermotion Durations
Fig. 2. 32-bus system for DISREL simulations Total Number of Customers

2.2 Implementation
The following steps are designed to run DISREL. where
Step 1. U ;is annual outage time and N; is the number (of
Prepare control data file based on system problems. The input customers of load point i.
data file names, run options, maintenance overlapping forced The units are customer-hourslyearlcustomer
outages and output options must be specified.
Step 2. 2.3.3 Customer Average Interruption DuratMn Index
Prepare component data file, which includes component ID, (CAIDI)
age, cost coefficients, current ratings, length, power factor, Defined as:
power ratings (kVA, kW and WAR), siblings, status, type, Sum of Customer Intermotion Durations
voltage rating and outage data. Total Number of Customer Intemutions
Step 3.
Prepare network topology data file that indicates the
connection of components
Step 4 where
Prepare switching instructions data file in which switching
instructions are specified using an IF - THEN syntax:
4 is the failure rate, ui is the annual outage time,
and Ni is the number of customers of load point i.
The units are customer-hours/customer-intermptions

564
2.3.4 Average Service Availability Index (ASAI) Table 1. Results with different generation levels
Defined as:
Customer hours of available service
Customer hours demanded Results With Different Generation Level
System Connected At Node 15
-E N i x8760-xUiNi Indices
-
OMVA 0.9MVA 2.75MVA 4.55MVA
-N i x8760 -
where 8760 is the number of hours in a calendar year. SAIFI 24.364 24.2946 24.2017 24.1639

2.3.5 Average Service Unavailability (ASUI) SAID1 97.303 96.9353 96.4448 96.2454
ASAI (ASUI) (Average Service availability (unavailability)
index) CADI 1 3.9937 3.9899 3.9851 3.9830
Defined as:
Customer hours of available service
Customer hours demanded
-
-
1N i x 8 7 6 0 - E U i N i
N i x 8760
m=I-M=
a s t n r e r ~ m d u m ~ l e m -i x - DN
i I I I I ~.
aaa3naSbm&W mx87€Q

where 8760 is the number of hours in a calendar year.

Table 2 Reliability indices with different generation levels
with circuit breaker without circuit breaker
2.3.6 Expected UnservedEnergy (EUE)
Defined as the total energy not supplied by the system: EUE =

where
is the average load connected to load point i.
The units are k W y r
The management of PV under fault is constrained by
reliability desired or controlled by the generating profile or
load demand. Different generation levels are tracked and by
computing Expected Unserved Energy @LE), which can be
low or high, we determine a set of conditions for improving
the system distribution profile through the introduction of
protective devices, and increased battery storage.

In conjunction with the EUE the Expected Outage Cost (Em)

in dollars can be determined to provide a cost evaluation of
the outages. In order to determine the EOC, a value for the
intempted energy assessment rate (IEAR) must be assumed,
using this IEAR value the EOC can be evaluated as

EOC = EUE x EAR

565
 The simulation was done for the introduction of 2.3.4, aid
SIMULATION RESULT 5 circuit breakers in the system if placed at the hest
locations. The percentages in the improvement of the EIJE
400000 for the various numbers of breakers were then computed
350000
and graphed as shown above.

300000 From the above simulation results, it was observed that

250000 with the addition of circuit breakers into the network, the
2 200000
150000
i""-
.GENERATION
reliability indices improved tremendously, and it was al.so
discovered that there exists a maximum number of
protective 'devices that can he added to improve the
reliability indices after which the reliability of the system
100000
remains the same irrespective of the number of protect:ive
50000 devices added.
0
In Table-1, the indices for different generation levels
1 2 3 4
connected to node 15 shows that SAIFI, SAIDI, CAIDI,
Generatlon Level at Node 15
witrh a CB at node 23
I ASAI and EUE are decreasing as the generation level
increases. From Table-2, when different generation levels
connected at node 15 with circuit breaker at node 23
reveals that SAIFI and SAD1 are decreasing. The CWDI
at 0.9 MVA marginally decreased as the generation level
Fig. 3. EUE versus generation level at node 15 with a circuit increased to 4.55 MVA. The ASUI, EUE and EOC are
breaker at node 23 decreasing as generation levels increase. Therefore, from
Table-l and Table-2, it clearly indicates that Table-2
results are much better compared with Table-1. Hence, as
SIMULATION RESULT
the generation levels are increasing at node 15 with circuit
140000
breaker at node 23 gives the better results. Fig. 3 reveals
that including the circuit breakers at node 23, the Expected
120000 Unserved Energy (EUE) do not change significantly and is
approximately equal irrespective of the generation levels.
100000
Whereas Fig. 4, indicates without circuit breaker, that EWE
80000 does changes according to the generation level at node 15
a
Y
significantly. Hence, providing a circuit breaker at optimal
.GENERATION
60000 location is a better solution for the Expected Unserved
Energy (EUE).
40000

20000 4.0 Conclusions

0
The impact of DG on distribution systems under
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
contingency was studied by using DG as a control action
Generation Level at Node I S
for alleviating overloaded lines thereby improving system
reliability and enhancing security. Based on the results
obtained, it can he concluded that DG technology provides
Fig. 4. EUE versus generation level at node 15 without a valuable means of improving power system perfommce
Circuit Breaker if interfaced with the existing network properly and thus
offers a cost-effective solution to energy problems
3.0 Discussion and Results benefiting both energy suppliers and consumers. Hence in
the deregulated power market, efforts must he focused on
Various simulations were then run with the addition of one incorporating distributed generation in the existing power
circuit breaker introduced to the system at various sections grid to boost system performance and enhance system
in the network. From those results, the best position if one reliability by enforcing new standards of interconnection
(1) circuit breaker is to he used to improve the EUE and with the existing grid network.
thereby the reliability was found to he at node 23 and the
other locations were ranked in the order of nodes 23, 18, 8 ,
and 29 respectively.

566
 [ 1I] J. Nazarko, Z. Styczynski and M. Poplawski, “Fwzy
6.0 Acknowledgements
Model Energy Losses Calculation in Low Voltage
Distribution Networks,” Proceedings of the Intelligent
The authors wish to acknowledge the efforts and funding System Application to Power System (ISAP-99) Rio de
received from National Science Foundation and NASK. Janeiro, Brazil, April 4-8, 1999, pp. 397-401.
Also, the authors wish to acknowledge the suppoa and
contributions from the staff of the Center for Energy
Systems and Control, Howard University. 8.0 Biography

James A. Momoh (M’76-SM89, F’99) received the

7.0 References B.S.E.E. degree from Howard University in 1975, the
M.S.E.E. degree from Camegie Mellon university in 1976,
[l] Review of Utility Interconnection, Tariff and Contract the M.S. in systems engineering from the University of
Provisions for Distributed Generation January 2000. A Pennsylvania in 1980 and the Ph.D in Electrical
report to the NARUC Committee on Energy Resources Engineering from Howard University in 1983. Dr. Momoh
and the Environment. is a former chair of Howard‘s Department of Electrical
Engineering.
[2]. www.distributioneeneration.com In 1987, he received a National Science Foundation
Presidential Young Investigator Award. He is currently
[3]. J.A. Momoh, S.K.Aganval, “Balancing Reliability
Program Director, Electrical Division, National Science
And Cost Using Distribution Industrial System
Foundation, where he is on sabbatical leave from his
Reliability Evaluation Program (DISREL),” ICPSOP
position at Howard as professor of Electrical Engineering
97 Conference Proceedings, January 14-17, 1997,
Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, pp. 365-370.
and director of the Center for Energy Systems and Control
(CESaC). His current research activities are concentrated in
stability analysis, system security and expert systems
[4]. Rong-Liang Chen, Kim Allen, Roy Billinton, “Value
design for utility f m and government agencies
Based Reliability Assessment and Planning,” IEEE
Transactions on Power Systems, 1985.
Robert A. Sowah received the BSc. degree in Electrical
and Electronic Engineering f “ the Kwame “ah
151. D.T. Rizy, W.T. Jewell, 3.P Stovall, “Operational and
Design Considerations for Electric Distribution University of Science &Technology (2000), Kumasi,
Systems with Dispersed Storage and Generation Ghana. He is currently pursuing his Master’s degree at
(DSG), “IEEE Transaction on Power Systems, 1985 Howard University. His research interest is in power
systems and control.
[6]. R Billinton and R. Allen, Reliability Evaluation of
Power Systems, Plenum Press, 1984.
[7]. R Billinton and J.E. Billinton. “Distribution Svstem
Reliability Indices,” IEEE Tkansaction on power
Delivery,Vol. 7.No.2, 1990,pp 1153-1157.

Mesut E. Baran and Ming-Yung Hsu, “VolWar

Control at Distribution Substations:’ IEEE
Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 14, No. 1
February 1999, pp. 312-318.

J. G . Rolim and L.J.B. Machado, “A Study of the Use

of Corrective Switching in Transmission Systems,”
IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vo1.14, No.1,
February 99, pp. 336-341.

[IO] K. Nara and Y. Hayashi, “Tabu Search Algorithm for

Loss Minimization DG Allocation,” Proceedings of
Intelligent Systems Applications to Power Systems
(ISAP-99), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 4-8, 1999, pp.
180-184.

561