Abstract :
Summary form only given. Obtaining a clear picture of reliability performance across North America has been difficult to do, but with the new version of IEEE Std. 1366-2003, it just became a little easier. Several different "exclusion" criteria have been used to calculate reliability metrics and most are based on the myriad of different regulatory reliability guidelines. Couple those differences with the fact that there is no industry-wide standardized data collection methodology, and performance comparison becomes next to impossible. The recently published standard provides a methodology that will mitigate the first impediment to comparison by providing a standardized method for segmenting data, and hence, a common measuring stick, however it does not address the data collection issues. This paper will describe the methodology and share results of a recently completed benchmarking survey that used the newly developed Major Event Day approach (2.5/6 Methodology) to segment major event days. While this new method will not mitigate all benchmarking issues, it does prescribe a clear approach to data segmentation and, when used, will give regulators, as well as utility executives, a clearer picture of their own reliability performance. The methodology does not address data collection issues. The IEEE TF on Interruption Reporting Practices is working on data collection issues has published a series of papers on this topic.
