A systematic and cost effective method to improve distribution system reliability

Deregulation has put electric utilities under extreme pressure to cut costs. At the same time, many customers are demanding higher levels of reliability. Both of these drivers have major implications for distribution systems. This is because they represent a large percentage of an electric utility´s costs, and they are the cause of most customer reliability problems. For a utility to be successful, it must be able to make reliability improvements while keeping costs down. This paper presents a systematic method of accomplishing this goal. This consists of (1) creating a reliability model of the system, (2) calibrating the system to historical performance, (3) performing a root cause analysis, (4) performing a sensitivity analysis, and (5) performing an economic analysis. If implemented properly, this method will quickly identify low cost, high impact projects that make the best use out of a utility´s limited budget