Markov-Based Reliability Assessment for Distribution Systems Considering Failure Rates

Switches (SWs) and renewable distributed generations (RDG) are subject to failure as well as other components of a system that are usually presumed fully reliable in the literature. It can lead to an overestimation of their contribution to reliability enhancement disregarding their dysfunction. This study considers the failure rate of SWs and RDGs to assess their impact on the reliability cost of the system and their effect on the optimal placement using a Markov-based approach. The optimal placement of SWs and RDGs in radial distribution systems is carried out simultaneously aim at minimizing the overall cost including investment, maintenance of SWs, and RDGs alongside the interruption cost. The performance of the model is verified through different scenarios and tested on RBTS bus 2. The results show that high values of the failure rates lead to fewer allocations to prevent plummeting the reliability of the system and increasing the capacity of the RDG results in fewer SWs allocation.