Basic considerations in generating capacity adequacy evaluation

Generating capacity adequacy evaluation is performed to evaluate the ability of the system generating capacity to meet the total system load. There are several basic reliability indices normally used to represent this ability and a wide range of methods have been developed to perform the evaluation. Although the basic reliability indices have been used for some time, there are still some misconceptions and misapplications that need to be examined and discussed. This paper illustrates two computer programs that have been developed to conduct basic generating capacity adequacy evaluation. The described simulation program provides the opportunity to extend the basic indices normally calculated using an analytical program to include index probability distributions. These concepts are illustrated in this paper together with some fundamental considerations regarding the basic indices and their interpretation in actual application. The concepts presented are illustrated by application to two published reliability test systems.