21, rue dArtois, F-75008 PARIS C1-202 CIGRE 2008

http : //www.cigre.org

PROPOSED METHODS FOR RECORDING AND ANALYZING OF

TRANSMISSION LINES AND SUBSTATIONS OUTAGES FOR
RELIABILITY ANALYZING AND IDENTIFYING THE UNRELIABLE POINTS OF
THE POWER SYSTEM

Davood Jalali Niki Moslemi AliReza Shirani

Niroo Research Institute (NRI)
Iran

SUMMARY

Recording and analyzing outages of power systems is a useful tool that clears how the power system
has worked in the past; this is the best way to recognize all unreliable points in the system. Other
important result is to obtain components reliability indices that are the first needs of reliability
evaluation in the power system. For reliability studies, the power system is divided in to 3 parts:
generation, transmission and distribution. Because of these divisions that are based on the power
systems structures and functions, the outages details must be recorded and analyzed separately.
This project has been done by the authors for the transmission networks because these are very
important and extended in Irans power system. The project has been done for 2 of the largest regional
electric companies in Iran for the time period of 4 years. The results of this studying are as follows:
a. Determining the information items that must be recorded in every outages for transmission lines and
substations to achieve their component reliability indices.
b. Designing transmission lines and substations outages forms completely and comprehensively so that
entering and processing data can be easy in the software.
c. Designing transmission lines and substations suitable outputs reports from the outage database for
evaluating reliability and detecting unreliable points of the system.
d. Preparing the transmission system outages database software as the following capabilities:
d.1. Possibility of entering transmission line and substation outages according to designed forms.
d.2. Calculating the reliability indices for all transmission line and substation components for
modeling transmission system instruments in reliability studies.
d.3. Calculating the power delivery indices for all transmission network in each studying year
separately. (By studying the indices changes procedure during the years it can be found that how the
development plans and the network operation move better.)
d.4. Calculating the power delivery indices due to all outages of each transmission line and substation
in every studying year separately. (By sorting these indices can be detected which line or substation
outage is caused the most interruption in past year. This shows that which line or substation is the
weakness of power delivery to customers or the unreliable points of the system.)
d.5. Reporting the different statistical reports in graphical or text mode from the number and cause of
interruptions in transmission lines and substations.
e. Studying reliability for the two of the regional electric companies of Irans power system.

djalali@nri.ac.ir
This paper is introduced a suitable method for recording and analyzing the outages, evaluating
reliability and detecting the unreliable points of the network. Also it emphasizes on some new
suggestions as follow:
a. Suggestion a new method for calculating the component reliability indices such as , concerning to
annual extension of the network and increase of components numbers.
b. Suggestion some new indices for the power delivery to customers such as LOE, ASCI, ASAI,
CAIDI, ASIDI and ASIFI due to outages of each substation and transmission line per year to detect
the weak or unreliable points of the transmission network.
There are some samples from the designed forms and the results reports are attached.

KEYWORDS

Reliability- Outage- Interruption- Transmission

1. Field Outage data

For reliability evaluation of transmission parts in power systems, it must be recorded all of the system
outages in the past. The outage information must be covered all of the needs of system reliability
studies. These information must be formed from the following items:
a. Outage location
b. Outage type
c. Outage time (interruption and restoration data)
d. Interrupted Component (type and location)
e. Cause of interruption
f. Component failure analysis
g. Weather condition
h. Switching device responsibility for tripping and restoration
i. Restoration type
j. Customer interruption data

2. Outage Data Collection Forms

The outages and interruptions of power system must be recorded for more years. Because of the great
volume of this information, it needs a powerful database software.
For using this software, it must be designed a suitable forms for outage recording of each of the
transmission lines and substations separately according to the above items. Because of these
information are recorded by the substation operators or interruption reporters, they must have the
following conditions to assure the accuracy of the recorded information.
a. It can cover all of the required outage data
b. It must be free from unnecessary data
c. All of data must be obvious
d. It must be suitable for computerized data collection and dont be related to the personal tacts
of data collectors.
The two forms which have been designed for recording of transmission line and substation outages as
the above mentions are attached.

3. Proposed methods for reliability evaluation and identifying the unreliable points

3.1. New calculating method for component reliability index

For reliability evaluation it is necessary to calculate the components reliability indices. The indices
such as and r are identified by using the recorded outages and interruptions for those components.
This information is recorded during the time interval which is usually about some years. The formula
(1) was used for determining for each substation components as the followings:

1
 T
m ji
j = i=1 (1)
n j .T
mji= Total no. of failures for each component j in year i in studying time interval
nj= Total no. of component j in studying time interval
T= Studying time interval
In formula (1) the number of component (nj) has the fixed amount. Therefore, j must be calculated
for the recorded interruptions of fixed substations in the period of studying time interval (T). By the
time, the transmission system will being developed so the number of substations and their components
will be increased. It is obvious that in the study time interval the interruptions recording will be
depend on the no. of previous and also new components which are added in each new study year and
consequently the number of nj will be increased in each new study year.
According to the above items, for considering all outages of the network it is necessary to record all of
the outages due to the previous and also new components of the substations in every year.
For this reason the formula (1) must be corrected to cobsider the above conditions. So the authors have
proposed the formula (2) instead of the formula (1).
T n ji
[m ji . ]
i =1 nj
j = (2)
n j .T
j = Risk of failure for each component j in studying time interval
mji= Total no. of failures for each component j in year i in studying time interval
nji = Total no. of component j in year i in studying time interval
nj = Maximum no. if component j in studying time interval
T= Studying time interval
Such as formula (2), the authors are proposed formula (3) for calculating the transmission lines
instead of the old formula.
T l ji
[m ji . ]
i =1 lj
j = (3)
l j .T
j= Index for identifying the type of transmission line which is related to voltage level
j = Risk of failure for line j per Km
mji = Total no. of failures for line j in year i in studying time interval
lji = Total length if line j in year i in studying time interval (Km)
lj= Maximum length of line j in studying time interval
T= Studying time interval

3.2. New indices for identifying unreliable points

In power systems, each outage of a transmission line or substation can be cause to the interruption of
group of customers. The amount of the interrupted customers due to the outage of each transmission
line or substation can be used for determining the amount of unreliability of that line or substation. So,
if the customer power delivery indices due to the outages of each lines and substations be calculated
annually, it can be identified the unreliable points by sorting each of them. These indices ate the
customer power delivery indices such as LOE, ASCI, ASAI, CAIDI, ASIDI & ASIFI. The
transmission lines and substations which are identified by this method can be marked as unreliable
points of transmission system in that year.
After identifying the unreliable points, the specifications and connections of these lines and
substations must be checked and then the best corrective plans for reliability improvement of these
lines and substations must be prepared. These corrective plans can be a new operation instruction for

2
the system or a corrective design for substations or its connection to the other substations of the
system.
For example, calculation of LOE due to outages in each transmission line is carried out by the
following formula:
N n
LOE k = La j .u j
i =1 j=1
K= Transmission Line name
N= Total no. of outages for transmission line k that causes an interruption for a load point
n= Total no. of load points that have an interruption in outage i
j= The load point that has an interruption in outage i
La= Interrupted power of load point j
u= Duration of interruption of load point j in outage i
For calculating the other power delivery indices for each substation and transmission line the similar
equations have been suggested.

4. Capabilities of transmission system outages database software

For recording and analyzing of transmission system outages, it needs a powerful database software.
This software must report the various reliability indices of the system and identify the unreliable
points. This software has been developed by the authors and has been used by them for FREC and
AREC which are the 2 of the largest regional electric companies in Iran. The capabilities of this
software are as the followings:
a. Possibility of entering transmission line and substation outages according to designed forms
b. Calculating the reliability indices for all types of transmission lines and substation components
according to the proposed formulas (2) and (3)
c. Calculating the power delivery indices in the whole of the transmission system for each
studying year separately
d. Calculating the power delivery indices due to all outages of each transmission line and
substation in every studying year separately
e. Reporting the different statistical reports in graphical or text mode from the number and cause
of interruptions in transmission lines and substations

5. Case studies

Proposed methods for recording and analyzing of transmission lines and substations have been used by
the authors for the two regional electric companies of Irans power system. The details of these studies
are as follows.

5.1. Fars regional electric company reliability evaluation

Recording and analyzing of outages for Fars Regional Electric Company (FREC) has been done from
1999 to 2002. The FREC has 155 substations and 188 transmission Lines with voltage levels 400, 230,
132 and 66 KV. 10000 outages have been recorded for this company during this time interval. The
reliability evaluation in this company could be specified the unreliable points and then the corrective
activities have been done for reliability improvement.

5.2. Azarbayjan regional electric company reliability evaluation

Such as FREC another study has been done for Azarbayjan Regional Electric Company (AREC) from
2000 to 2003. This company had 103 substations and 135 transmission lines with voltage levels 400,
230, 132 & 63 KV. 8300 outages have been recorded for this company during this time interval. In
this study the following results has been obtained:
a. Component reliability indices for AREC
b. Annually power delivery indices for whole of the AREC

3
 c. Annually power delivery indices due to outages of each substation and transmission line (by
sorting this indices, the unreliable points has been distinguished and then the corrective
activities has been done for reliability improvement)
d. Different statistical reports in graphical or text mode from the number and cause of
interruption in transmission lines and substations.

6. Conclusion

In this paper the methods for recording and analyzing of transmission lines and substations outages for
reliability analyzing and identifying the unreliable points of the power system are completely
proposed. After specifying the suitable field outage data for recording, the two forms for outage data
collection have been proposed.
Also a new method is proposed for calculating the component reliability index () of the transmission
lines and substations components and so, the new indices has been proposed for identifying the
unreliable points such as substations and transmission lines. These indices can identify which lines and
substations causes more customer interruptions in transmission system. These lines and substations
can be marked as unreliable points and so they can have the most priority to the other lines and
substations in the process of reliability improvement. Finally the capabilities of transmission system
outages database software has been explained and then some results of two projects which has been
done by this paper proposed methods are attached. The authors are believed that the proposed method
is the complete method for reliability evaluation in transmission system and can identify the unreliable
points carefully.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] Canadian Electricity Association (CEA). Forced Outage Performance Of Transmission Equipment; For
The Period January 1, 1996 To December 31, 2000 (May 2002)
[2] IEEE std 859. IEEE Standard Terms For Reporting And Analyzing Outage Occurrences And Outage
States Of Electrical Transmission Facilities (1998)
[3] IEEE std 1366. IEEE Trial-Use Guide For Electric Power Distribution Reliability Indices (1998)
[4] IEEE std 493 IEEE Recommended Practice For The Design Of Reliable Industrial And Commercial
Power Systems (1997)
[5] BS 5760, Reliability Of Systems, Equipment And Components, (Parts 2, 4, 5, 11 &12, 1998)
[6] R. Bilinton, R.N. Allan. Reliability evaluation of power systems (Pitman Publishing, 1984)
[7] Working group SC 38-03 CIGRE. Power system reliability analysis application guide (1987)

4
5
6
7