A probabilistic reliability evaluation of a power system including Solar/Photovoltaic cell generator

Renewable energy resources such as wind, wave, solar, micro hydro, tidal and biomass among others are becoming more important because of increasingly restricted environmental constraints. Production of electrical energy using solar energy falls next to wind energy among all renewable energy sources. While a two-state model is well suited for modeling conventional generators, a multi-state model is needed for modeling solar/photovoltaic cell generators due to the random variation of solar radiation. This makes the method of finding reliability evaluation indices of solar cell generators different from the conventional generators. This paper presents a method suited for the purpose and presents details of a reliability evaluation study on a power system with solar cell generators. Test results indicate the viability of the method.