Deregulated power system planning using a reliability network equivalent technique

In a deregulated or unbundled power system, generation, transmission and distribution facilities can belong to quite different owners. This situation makes it difficult for the system planners who work in the various companies to evaluate system reliability without access to the entire system. The paper provides a technique based on reliability cost-worth considerations. The technique can be used to make utility planning and operating decisions and by customers to make purchase decisions in an unbundled utility regime. The concept of a service provider is introduced to represent generation and transmission facilities. Reliability equivalence techniques are used to determine a representative service provider and to create equivalent elements. Some of the problems in an unbundled power system are illustrated using a representative test system.