Adequacy Evaluation of Composite Power Systems Using an Evolutionary Swarm Algorithm

Abstract

The generation and transmission capacities of many power systems in the world are significantly increasing due to the escalating global electricity demand. Therefore, the adequacy evaluation of power systems has become a computationally challenging and time-consuming task. Recently, population-based intelligent search methods such as Genetic Algorithms (GAs) and Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO) have been successfully employed for evaluating the adequacy of power generation systems. In this work, the authors propose a novel Evolutionary Swarm Algorithm (ESA) for the adequacy evaluation of composite generation and transmission systems. The random search guiding mechanism of the ESA is based on the underlying philosophies of GAs and BPSO. The main objective of the ESA is to find out the most probable system failure states that significantly affect the adequacy of composite systems. The identified system failure states can be directly used to estimate the system adequacy indices. The proposed ESA-based framework is used to evaluate the adequacy of the IEEE Reliability Test System (RTS). The estimated annualized and annual adequacy indices such as Probability of Load Curtailments (PLC), Expected Duration of Load Curtailments (EDLC), Expected Energy Not Supplied (EENS) and Expected Frequency of Load Curtailments (EFLC) are compared with those obtained using Sequential Monte Carlo Simulation (SMCS), GA and BPSO. The results show that the accuracy, computational efficiency, convergence characteristics, and precision of the ESA outperform those of GA and BPSO. Moreover, compared to SMCS, the ESA can estimate the adequacy indices in a more time-efficient manner.