Constructing restoration strategies with availability risk constraints

System restoration strategies are established and implemented based on the availabilities of components of a system. However, due to lack of accurate information, availabilities of some components may not be known during establishment of restoration strategies after a blackout. In this paper, a novel risk-based methodology is proposed for constructing restoration strategies with stochastic availability constraints for both individual components and restoration paths. Based on a stochastic model of the availability, a multistage stochastic optimization model is constructed. A bi-level method is used to solve the proposed model. The established restoration strategy is to achieve a reasonable restoration duration subjects to operating constraints and acceptable risk levels. The proposed risk constraints are introduced into the EPRI´s System Restoration Navigator (SRN) with a little modification. Case studies demonstrate the proposed model and methods.