A Free Industry-grade Education Tool for Bulk Power System Reliability Assessment

TL;DR

This paper introduces a free, industry-grade educational software for bulk power system reliability assessment, featuring advanced algorithms and detailed data handling, demonstrated through a practical case study.

Contribution

It presents a comprehensive, open-source tool integrating multiple reliability assessment algorithms with detailed architecture and data formats for educational purposes.

Findings

Effective demonstration on a five-area system

Efficient performance of reliability algorithms

Clear data input/output structure

Abstract

A free industry-grade education tool is developed for bulk-power-system reliability assessment. The software architecture is illustrated using a high-level flowchart. Three main algorithms of this tool, i.e., sequential Monte Carlo simulation, unit preventive maintenance schedule, and optimal-power-flow-based load shedding, are introduced. The input and output formats are described in detail, including the roles of different data cards and results categorization. Finally, an example case study is conducted on a five-area system to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of this tool.