Setting reliability goals [for electric utilities]

Basing corporate reliability goals on industry averages and statistics of other electric utilities is almost fruitless, both because of the differences in reporting practices (a utility could be comparing its apples to the industry's oranges) and because the difficulty of providing reliability will vary greatly from one area to another. Here, the author examines two approaches to the setting of reliability goals: reliability assessment based on past performances; and value-based reliability planning.