ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews power delivery reliability concepts in general and introduces the key components used in reliability analysis. It analyses equipment outages and service interruptions, the reliability indices used to evaluate reliability performance, and their application to electric utility systems and Distributed generators systems. The chapter discusses the cost of reliability, and the various types of trade-offs that different customers make in deciding how much reliability is worth to them. Two different aspects of reliability receive attention in any type of power supply reliability analysis, whether of interruptions or outages. These are the frequency and duration. Frequency and duration are important factors in reliability analysis and design, but there is a third factor equally important to the electric service planner because it is the one over which the planner has considerable control, particularly in the design phase. In many cases a higher-reliability layout may be less expensive than any other way of achieving the particular reliability goal.
