Applications of customer outage costs in system planning, design and operation

Although the basic function of an electric utility company is to supply power economically and at acceptable levels of continuity and quality, the emphasis placed on these aspects during planning, design and operation depends on the level of system development. Further development of developed networks is dominated by technological changes and concern for strict economic operation, quality of service and reliability. The authors only address issues related to reliability and consider distribution systems which are a part of developed networks from this vantage point. It has been suggested that existing standards do not adequately address customers' concerns over reliability. To redress this, the authors address such concerns by presenting customer outage costs (COC), which are considered as proxies for reliability worth, as a criterion for providing additional justification for alternative distribution system plans, designs or operating policies. To demonstrate the application in these respects, two networks based on realistic 33kV systems are analysed, and the effects of network modifications or changes in operating policies on traditional reliability indices and COC studied.