Narrow Results

The onset of deregulation in the electric power sector in the recent years has brought to the fore several pronounced issues related to reliability management, necessitating a revamping of the metrics. The element of markets and economic trading introduced in the operations of power systems has seen a paradigm shift even in the way customer-say is incorporated into the reliability apportioning. In order to better appreciate the sea-changes brought forward by deregulation, identification of areas of evolving reliability research in the regulated regime goes a long way in dealing with their deregulated counterparts. This paper caters to the view to provide a pointer to the significant issues that can profoundly impact the reliability studies in the liberalized environment. Emphasis in this paper is placed on a bilateral market structure, where all participants of competitive trading have mutually agreed upon pre-defined contracts to trade energy. With a view to improvise upon the existing nascent reliability network equivalent techniques, a realistic state space selection methodology, crucial to the contingency effects' evaluation is proposed, which makes a novel use of power flow tracing procedures. This research work is intended to pave the way for robust reliability models that take into account all the structural and consequent operational transmutations in power systems, yielding a concrete possibility of implementing non-uniform reliability as per the user requirements — a situation that was not feasible in the earlier regime.

By adapting the emerging conceptualization of reliability network equivalents, originally developed to obtain reliability indices in the restructured scenario, a suitable framework encapsulating relatively independent modularity could be evolved that shall enable the application of joint deterministic- probabilistic well being-analysis for the composite restructured power systems. Reliability management forms the core component of successful transition from vertical integration of power systems to their deregulation. Timely reinforcements to the resource adequacy will ensure reliably operating power systems. Redundancy apportioning without pessimistic appraisals or exceedingly optimistic estimates is a vital ingredient for the success of restructured systems. With these goals in mind, this paper puts forward a philosophical modeling paradigm that investigates the feasibility of extending the hybrid approach of well-being analysis to a composite bilateral contracts market structure, a potential indicator of generation reinforcements to gear up for. Probabilistic load flow studies as a means to justify transmission reinforcements is also brought forward. Also presented is an overview of the reliability cost-worth methods, information from which forms an integral part of the reinforcement strategies.

In this paper, beginning with a concise overview of the Available Transfer Capability (ATC) evaluation methods, we make a proposition for reliability management in the planning horizon of deregulated power systems through the concept of Adequacy Resiliency. The derived indices are meant as indicators of adaptability of power systems to ensure the required reliability levels. Improvements to this conceptualization upon the deployment of Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) devices are then put forward. We also explore the option of employing the created indices to the operational horizon of power systems, explaining the means of market enhancement. Core reliability issues arising out of the usage of FACTS are then discussed.

We analyze relations between several knot invariants such as the unknotting (unlinking) number, adequacy, and quasi-alternating property, and the corresponding values obtained from (minimal crossing number) knot diagrams. In particular, we define the BJ-unlinking number, and compute it for various families of knots and links for which the unlinking number is unknown.