Reliability Evaluation of a Microgrid Considering Its Operating Condition

Microgrids offer several reliability benefits, such as the improvement of load-point reliability and the opportunity for reliability-differentiated services. The primary goal of this work is to investigate the impacts of operating condition on the reliability index for microgrid system. It relies on a component failure rate model which quantifies the relationship between component failure rate and state variables. Some parameters involved are characterized by subjective uncertainty. Thus, fuzzy numbers are introduced to represent such parameters, and an optimization model based on Fuzzy Chance Constrained Programming (FCCP) is established for reliability index calculation. In addition, we present a hybrid algorithm which combines scenario enumeration and fuzzy simulation as a solution tool. The simulations in a microgrid test system show that reliability indices without considering operating condition can often prove to be optimistic. We also investigate two groups of situations, which include the different penetration levels of microsource and different confidence levels. The results support the necessity of considering operating condition for achieving accurate reliability evaluation.