Benchmarking distribution network reliability in the future electricity distribution industry (EDI) of South Africa: an international overview, discussion, and summary of key lessons learnt

Benchmarking is a mainstay of most successful business organizations across all industries throughout the world. This typically includes the comparison of some measure or measures of performance against one´s leading competitors or identified peer group. As in most electricity distribution markets, government regulation under the National Energy Regulator (NER) will serve as a substitute for competition in the restructuring South African electricity distribution industry (EDI). As such, the NER will require network reliability benchmarking of each of the six regional electricity distributors (REDs) in support of fair and equitable targets for economic regulation. The future REDs will use performance benchmarking in management decision-making and in support of their positions on economic regulation before the NER. Market analysts, investors, owners, and large commercial/industrial electric customers will regularly compare performance levels between different companies., in support of their own internal decision-making. Electric power distribution reliability has proven to be a key area of benchmarking in the more mature electric distribution regulatory environments throughout the world (e.g., UK, USA., CA, AU, etc.) and promises the same in the future EDI. Throughout the world, much effort continues to be expended in developing robust methods to uniformly and consistently quantify the reliability of distribution service based on electric system performance. This paper discusses electric distribution reliability from the end-use customer´s perspective, the generally accepted methods used to measure such, some of the difficulties in benchmarking, and a few lessons learned. The lessons learnt will be of direct benefit to the future REDS