A Monte Carlo simulation model for reliability evaluation of transmission systems

The Alberta Interconnected System (AIS) forms a single integrated transmission network serving the province of Alberta. ATCO Electric Limited, formerly Alberta Power Limited (APL), who owns and operates a portion of this system, has traditionally relied on implicit criteria for evaluating system reliability performance and the need for system enhancements. Since 1990, however, increasing emphasize is being placed on value-based probabilistic assessments that attempt to quantify the risk of system disturbances, as well as the cost and the benefit of system enhancement projects. A case study is presented in this paper in which a new value-based Monte Carlo simulation approach is utilized to compute popular customer oriented reliability indices for a local area supplied by the main Alberta provincial grid