Reliability assessment for smart grid and future power distribution systems

Smart grid incorporates communication and control technologies to provide more efficient and reliable electricity to customers. The infrastructure of such power system will allow the customers to generate and store electricity, and use that in case of an outage or disconnection from the utility. Therefore, the outage of power from the utility side does not necessarily result in loss of electricity. This paper presents a new process for reliability assessment of future power distribution systems affected by the customers' distributed energy resources (DER). The method to calculate the reliability indices, such as SAIFI and SAIDI, based on a Monte Carlo simulation is explained; and results are provided for case studies with residential, commercial, and industrial customers, renewable generation, and battery systems.