Failure rates in distribution networks: Estimation methodology and application

• Published in: Electric power systems research 2020-08, Vol.185, p.106398, Article 106398
• Main Authors: Clavijo-Blanco, J.A., Rosendo-Macías, J.A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Breakdowns; Distribution networks; Electric components; Electric power distribution; Electric utilities; Electrical failure analysis; Electricity distribution; Failure analysis; Failure rates; Feeders; Mathematical analysis; Power system reliability; Quality of service; Reliability analysis; Statistical analysis
• ISSN: 0378-7796; 1873-2046
• DOI: 10.1016/j.epsr.2020.106398

•Network and incident databases of an electric utility have been analyzed in order to study failures.•A methodology for failure rate estimation including component pooling has been presented.•These failure rates cover variation ranges within those of bibliography.•Estimated failure rates provide good prediction capability for aggregated areas. Electric distribution companies have the responsibility of achieving the standards established by the respective regulating authorities in order to guarantee the highest quality of supply for their customers. To do so, they have to register all the electrical issues produced in the Distribution Network into a database. This paper uses this real database to make a statistical analysis of the failures that occur in distribution networks and identify the interruption causes, in order to estimate failure rates and improve the quality of electrical supply. These failure rates are used to calculate the failure probability of electrical feeders taking into account the different electrical components in them. The expected amount of failures of more than 350 feeders have been calculated and tested with the real database to prove the reliability of the method. This work also shows an application to evaluate the failure probability of alternative network configurations.