Animated Monte Carlo simulation for teaching power generating system reliability analysis

This paper presents the “GENAS” simulation program which has been developed and used for educational purposes. The program is developed based on a combination of animation and Monte Carlo concepts to help students interactively and visually understand the random behavior and reliability performance of large electric power systems as a function of time. The “GENAS” program dynamically produces color moving pictures of the system as well as the numerical values of system reliability indices. This combination of animation and Monte Carlo techniques provides students with the information not generally available from conventional tools of reliability instruction.