Quantitative evaluation of savings in outage costs by using emergency actions strategy

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study carried out to assess the savings in consumer outage costs that can be accrued as a result of implementing emergency actions strategy. The use of emergency actions strategy plays a significant role in curtailing the consumer outage costs ensuing from unreliable electric service. In order to calculate the savings in outage costs, the probabilistic framework of the frequency and duration method has been used in conjunction with emergency actions. At first, the outage costs of various consumer sectors are estimated without considering the emergency actions. Secondly, the consumer outage costs are calculated by combining the frequency and duration method, and unserved energy with the emergency actions invoked. The results of the savings in consumer outage costs that can be accrued by utilising emergency actions strategy are presented for a synthetic system. The results of the study show that substantial savings in consumer outage costs are obtained by devising and implementing emergency actions strategy in situations of capacity outages. The results are of particular relevance and utility to the underdeveloped and developing countries where capacity shortages occur quite frequently. These results also suggest the importance of emergency actions strategy for electric utilities in reducing the consumer economic losses arising from unreliable electric service.