The Economics of Power System Reliability and Planning: Theory and Case Study

This study highlights the importance of developing and applying a new criterion for power system planning that is based on optimal reliability levels. Using a dual economic-engineering method, it is shown both theoretically and operationally that it is possible to establish an optimum plan for long run power system expansion and a corresponding range of reliability levels that will produce the greatest net social benefits. Such a treatment of the effects of reliability on both the supply and demand sides require accurate estimates of system costs and outage costs. Estimates of system costs may be determined from straightforward engineering-economic considerations. Estinating outage costs is a more difficult task, however. Therefore, new models and detailed methods are presented for analyzing the various ways in which electricity is used by different categories of consumers.