A Survey of Industry Practices in Probabilistic Assessment and Composite System Reliability Analysis

There is a vast amount of literature dealing with composite system reliability. A survey was conducted by the IEEE Composite System Reliability Task Force to assess the state of industry practice in probabilistic assessment in general and composite system reliability (CSR) analysis in particular. Increasing interest has been seen in evaluating the reliability impact of the high penetration of renewables such as photovoltaics and wind, retirement of coal plants, regulatory requirements, and other policies on a composite system basis - that is, including both generation and transmission. These have all significantly increased the uncertainties in power systems and made the reliability assessment of composite power systems much more complicated. The survey questions addressed the types of analyses being done, the contexts and purposes of these analyses, the software tools in use, the importance of various features of the software tools, and whether the implementation of these features is adequate or lacking. The survey also sought to identify impediments that may be constraining more widespread implementation of probabilistic and CSR analysis.