Analysis on operation and maintenance modes of distributed generation based on economic benefits

Three kinds of feasible operation and maintenance (O&M) modes of distributed generation (DG) are concluded in this paper, including the owner O&M mode, the outsourcing O&M mode and the cooperative O&M mode. Considering the customer is the owner to invest in the DG system, the models of life cycle costs and benefits of DG under the three O&M modes are established respectively. Then the economic benefits of the customer are evaluated via three indexes: the net present value, dynamic investment payback period and internal return rate. A distributed photovoltaic generation system is selected as the simulation case, the costs and benefits of the customer under three modes are calculated respectively. The results can help the customer to select the best O&M mode of DG.