Rural distribution system reliability worth evaluation using individual customer outage cost characteristics

Abstract

Customer interruption costs are a function of both interruption and user characteristics. The specific customer characteristics at a load point in a distribution network can have a significant effect on the estimated customer outage costs at that load point and for the entire feeder. This paper illustrates the effects on outage cost estimates of using generalized sector customer outage cost estimates and actual customer specific outage cost functions. The data used in these analyses are from customer cost surveys conducted in Canada. A small distribution system is used to illustrate the possible variation in interruption cost estimates due to incorporating specific customer characteristics in the evaluation. The results presented clearly show that different customer compositions can result in significantly different feeder interruption cost estimates. The estimated interruption costs can be used in feeder design to create an optimal configuration based on reliability cost/worth analysis.