An Analytical Method to Consider DG Impacts on Distribution System Reliability

Distributed generation is expected to play an increasing role in emerging power systems. They use different type of resources and technologies to serve energy to power system. DG has positive and negative effects for both the utilities and customers. System and load point reliability indices are normally improved if DG is installed in a distribution network. On the other hand, DG has some specific characteristics which distinguish it from conventional generating units. Therefore, they should not be treated as conventional generating units to perform reliability evaluation. An appropriate model is required to be developed in order to assess impacts of DG on reliability indices. Impacts of DG implementation on distribution system reliability are investigated in this paper using a distribution test system. A reliability model for DG is developed and an analytical probabilistic approach is proposed for this purpose. Impacts of different parameters such as components failure rates, load and DG positions and DG generation parameters are included in the analysis