A survey of distribution reliability measurement practices in the US

Reliability is one of the most discussed topics in the power industry today. Although many questions are being asked about the quality of service across the US nation, presently there are no standardized ways to track reliability between electric utilities. The same utilities are using the EEI/IEEE approved indices, but most have different ways of calculating the data. This paper provides the results of two nationwide surveys on reliability indices and practices and point out some of the pitfalls associated with comparing reliability indices between electric utilities.