Reliability Evaluation of Composite Power Systems Integrated with Wind and Solar Energy Sources: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

The worldwide growing concern of environmental degradation due to the burning of fossil fuels and their near exhaustion has resulted in a rise in the use of renewable energy sources (RES) for electricity generation. Due to the stochastic and intermittent nature of these sources along with their significant proportion into the modern power systems poses various operational challenges. Reliability evaluation has been extensively studied for operation and planning of the composite power systems during the last few decades. Evaluation of reliability is crucial for planning, design, and management of power systems integrated with RES. The objective of a reliability evaluation is to provide suitable measures, criteria, and indices of reliable and secure performance based on system historical data, component outage data and configuration. The fundamental technique for reliability evaluation is analytical assessment, however simulation techniques have been developed to deal with complex systems and the unpredictable behavior of systems and their constituent components. The studies are scrutinized in order to evaluate the indices, such as LOLP, EENS, LOLE. Recently, hybrid techniques that include the benefits of the conventional methods were developed. This paper presents a comprehensive and systematic review of the studies carried out for evaluation of reliability for composite power systems integrated with renewables particularly the wind and solar energy sources covering the peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2021. According to the literature, a paradigm shift in reliability management is required to efficiently combine large number of RES and the requisite flexibility services. The review gives the reader a general overview of reliability of power systems, concepts of adequacy and security, different modelling and evaluation techniques and explanation on various reliability indices. The key aspects of different research works are discussed including comparison of different wind and solar power models, evaluation methods, application areas and the level of studies involved.