National Conference on Power Distribution (NCPD), DSD-CPRI, Bangalore-November 8th & 9th 2012

Assessment of Reliability in Power Distribution System

V.Ashok Harikrishna K V P.Chandhrasekhar T.Raghunatha

Viji Bharathi

Distribution Systems Division

Central Power Research Institute
Bangalore-560080
Email:pcs@cpri.in

Abstract
The economic growth and development of a country in each field depends on
quality and reliability of power supply. So, the government has introduced power system
deregulation and restructuring process to achieve reliable, quality supply at consumer
end. Now, the electric utilities have to plan and operate their distribution systems in
reliable and cost effective manner to face open market condition. The historical
reliability assessments are normally used to evaluate performance of the distribution
system network. The reliability of a power system can be calculated by different
reliability Indices which includes, System Average Interruption Frequency Index(SAIFI),
System Average Interruption Duration Index(SAIDI),Customer Average Interruption
Frequency Index(CAIFI) and Customer Average Interruption Duration Index(CAIDI)
etc.,. In this paper reliability indices are calculated for practical industrial distribution
network of our research interest by using CYMDIST-Reliability Assessment Module
(RAM) software, it is validated with RBTS (Roy Billinton Test System) as an IEEE
validation test case. The results are tabulated to benchmark the performance and
operation of the practical distribution system.

Keywords: Distribution system, Historical Reliability assessment, RBTS, CYMDIST

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National Conference on Power Distribution (NCPD), DSD-CPRI, Bangalore-November 8th & 9th 2012

I. Introduction
Reliability of a power distribution system is defined as the ability to deliver
uninterrupted service to customer. Distribution system reliability indices can be
presented in many ways to reflect the reliability of individual customers, feeders and
system oriented indices related to substation. Two approaches to reliability evaluation of
distribution systems are normally used; namely, historical assessment and predictive
assessment. Historical assessment involves the collection and analysis of distribution
system outage and customer interruption data [4]. It is essential for electric utilities to
measure actual distribution system reliability performance levels and define
performance indicators in order to assess the basic function of providing cost effective
and reliable power supply to all customer types. The distribution system is an important
part of the total electrical supply system. This is due to the fact that the distribution
system provides the final link between a utility’s transmission system and its customers.
It has been reported that more than eighty per cent of all customer interruptions occur
due to failures in the distribution system.

Historical assessment generally is described as measuring the past performance of a

system by consistently logging the frequency, duration, and causes of system
component failures and customer interruptions. The historical data is very useful when
analyzed to ascertain what went wrong in the past and therefore correct it, and also as
input to predict future service reliability [2]. Historical models summarize the actual
performance of a distribution system during some time period, for example, quarterly,
half-yearly or annually. The basic data item in this case is a system failure, which is a
component outage or a customer interruption. Each failure event is taken into
consideration and analyzed according to causes of failure, duration of outage, area of
the system affected.

A variety of customer and load oriented system performance indices can be derived by
analyzing the recorded data. These indices are very useful for assessing the severity of
interruption events. Assessment of past performance is useful in the sense that it helps
to identify weak areas of the system and the need for reinforcement [7]. It enables
previous predictions to be compared with actual field experience as well as it can serve
as a guide for acceptable values in future reliability assessments.

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National Conference on Power Distribution (NCPD), DSD-CPRI, Bangalore-November 8th & 9th 2012

II. Reliability Indices

A variety of customer and load oriented system performance indices can be

derived by using the recorded data. In this paper, however, only the most commonly
used system indices are presented [1].

 System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI)

SAIFI is the average number of interruptions per customer served .

 System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI)

SAIDI is the average duration of a customer interruption, per customer served.

 Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI)

CAIDI measures the average duration of a customer interruption within the class
of customers that experienced at least one sustained interruption.

 Customer Average Interruption Frequency Index (CAIFI)

Note: CAIFI defines the conditional average number of interruptions among the class of
customers who experience at least one interruption.

 Average System Availability Index (ASAI) is the ratio of total customer hours that
service was available, divided by the total customer hours in the time period for which
the index is calculated. On an annual basis, it can be shown that

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National Conference on Power Distribution (NCPD), DSD-CPRI, Bangalore-November 8th & 9th 2012

In this work we have calculated the reliability indices SAIFI, SAIDI, CAIDI, ASAI
and analysis carried out on bus two system of the Roy Billinton Test System (RBTS)
and one of the industrial feeders of the Karnataka state utility.

III. Methodology

In this paper analytical method has been used and which is based on
mathematical modeling of the system to be applied. The Simulation is based on minimal
cut set method by using FMEA (Failure Mode Effect Analysis) technique [6]. Failure
mode and effects analysis technique is used to evaluate the expected values of basic
load point and system reliability indices.

This is an inductive approach that systematically details with the details of a distribution
system component by component basis. All possible failure modes and their resulting
effects are identified on the system [5]. The possible failure events or malfunction of
each component in the distribution system network are identified and analyzed to
determine the effect on surrounding load points.

This minimal cut set method based on FMEA technique reduces computation time by
focusing on the system contingencies which are relevant for the selected load points
and not for the entire system. Components of a minimal cut set behave like they are
connected in parallel i.e. all have to fail to cause system failure and several minimum
cut sets behaves as connected in series, i.e. failure of one minimum cut set causes
system failure (fig.1).

11

……. 1 …… N

N
1
(a) (b)

Fig.1:11
Minimal cut-set method both parallel and series configuration

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National Conference on Power Distribution (NCPD), DSD-CPRI, Bangalore-November 8th & 9th 2012

IV. RBTS-Test system & Assessment of Reliability Indices

In this paper RBTS Bus-2 network has been taken as a test case for validation. This
is a typical network coming from 33/11kV substation as a source point and having 4
feeders, 22 load points and 1908 customers (like residential, commercial and
government organization/institutional customers)[3]. All feeders are radial in nature but
connected as mesh through normally open sectionalizing point to provide alternative
supply. Fig.2.shows the single line diagram and system configuration of RBTS Bus-2
network.

Fig. 2: Single line diagram of the RBTS TWO-BUS SYSTEM..

V. Assessment of Reliability Indices of Practical Network

The real distribution feeder is taken from one of the Karnataka state DISCOM which is
modeled and simulated using CYMDIST RAM software. It is an industrial feeder starting
from 66/11kV substation, consisting of 74 Distribution transformers (DT’s) having 140
number of total customers served with a total feeder length of 8.64 kms. Interruption
details of the feeder have been collected for duration of one year from available load
dispatch center (LDC), log books and LC(Line Clearance) books at the substation.

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National Conference on Power Distribution (NCPD), DSD-CPRI, Bangalore-November 8th & 9th 2012

 Network & Outage data collection

Electric utilities have maintained a log book to enter the interruption details for
all the feeders which are coming out from a particular substation and LC (Line
Clearance) data book to enter the line clearance data. We have collected the
interruption details for a period of one year for industrial feeder, which includes the
number of interruptions, duration of the interruptions, and cause for interruption and
equipment’s failure data for the industrial feeder. Single line Diagrams (SLD) of the
feeder is collected from the substation, verified and then network is modeled in the
CYMDIST software. Interruption details of the components are entered in the Reliability
Assessment Module (RAM) of the software at specific places and simulation results are
obtained.

Fig. 3: Single line diagram of the Practical industrial feeder.

V. Analysis of Results

Table.1.shows the reliability indices of the RBTS-test system which is

standardized by IEEE working group. These simulated results achieved by CYMDIST
software module and has been taken as a validation case for our practical network.
This is more significant to evaluate the performance of our practical industrial
feeder.Table.2 results shows the reliability indices of practical industrial feeder and
describes the performance of the practical network. These results are helpful to the
local utilities to provide quality of power supply at consumer end in reliable and cost

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National Conference on Power Distribution (NCPD), DSD-CPRI, Bangalore-November 8th & 9th 2012

effective manner. The SAIFI, SAIDI values gives the system frequency and duration of
interruptions per year per customer basis. Average system availability (ASAI), average
energy supplied(AENS) and energy not supplied(ENS) indices will be helpful to the
utilities for proper asset management with respective kilowatt hour (kWh) loss.
Reliability indices can vary from one place to another place according to the network
configuration, geographical and weather conditions [6].

Table.1: Reliability indices of RBTS network

CAIDI ENS
Feeder SAIFI SAIDI ASAI ASUI AENS
hr./cust-
Intr/cust-yr hrs./cust-yr
Intr
kWh/yr kWh/cust-yr

F1 0.248 3.76 15.16 0.999570 0.000430 13862 21.26

F2 0.140 0.57 4.06 0.999940 0.000060 1217 608.69
F3 0.250 3.76 15.07 0.999570 0.000430 11845 18.74
F4 0.247 3.75 15.17 0.999570 0.000430 12983 20.87

Table.2: Reliability indices of Industrial feeder

Practical ENS AENS
SAIFI SAIDI CAIDI MAIFI
ASAI kWh/cust-
Feeder Intr/cust-yr hrs./cust-yr hr./cust-intr Intr/cust-yr kWh/yr. yr
Simulated
403.430 375.159 0.930 119.238 0.9572 816178.9 5834.016
values

All the indices are with respect to customer load point of view, table 2 shows the results
of practical industrial feeder performance. When compared with the
National/International standards, performance of the practical feeder is not good. The
performance can be improved by proper planning and Automation in the distribution
system which includes switches, sectionalizers and other protective devices at
appropriate places.

VII. Conclusion
The study conducted can be a very useful guidance to improve performance of
the distribution network. In general, interruptions have a negative impact on economy
due to associated cost of interruptions. It will be of great importance for planners and
managers of distribution networks if they could make decisions based not only on the
expected values of reliability indices but also on the probability distribution functions of
the failure frequency and failure duration in order to take care of worst served
customers.

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National Conference on Power Distribution (NCPD), DSD-CPRI, Bangalore-November 8th & 9th 2012

Acknowledgement

The authors are very grateful to the organization (CPRI) for permitted to do this
research work. The authors thankful C.P Jairam (Joint Director), R.Deshpande (Joint
Director), other officers and associates of the Distribution systems Division (DSD). The
authors also thankful to the local utilities (DISCOM’s) for their cooperation and help to
get valuable data and information in the field for the practical network.

References:

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4. O. Shavuka, K.O. Awodele, S.P. Chowdhury and S. Chowdhury “Reliability Analysis of

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