Reliability Evaluation of Renewable-Rich Microgrids Using Monte Carlo Simulation Considering Resource and Equipment Availability

This paper proposes a new reliability evaluation method for renewable energy (RE) rich microgrid (MG) systems using a holistic approach by modelling the availability of renewable resources such as solar irradiation and wind along with the equipment availability during each hour. Where an electric network relies heavily on renewable resources the availability of such resources will significantly affect the reliability of the whole system. In addition, energy storage systems (ESSs) impact the reliability of a microgrid. In this paper, the mean time to failure (MTTF) of a RE rich MG system is evaluated based on the MTTF of equipment for different levels of renewable energy generation and energy storage. The loss of load frequency (LOLF) in each hour due to equipment failure, due to resource unavailbalitly, and the system failure due to combined effects were counted in a simulation study of 25 years.