Identification of critical components of composite power systems using minimal cut sets

Reliability evaluation plays an important role in system analysis, design, upgrades, and operations, especially in composite power systems. This paper presents a reliability assessment method for composite power system using the minimal cut set calculations. The objective is to to detect critical components in order to help planners to make economic decisions on new investments in generation capacities and transmission lines upgrades, also to help operators maintain the delivery of electricity during system failure and disturbance events. This paper focuses on the evaluation of composite system reliability under steady state conditions, and assessing operational risks in real-time system operations using direct probabilistic analysis techniques and hence identify the critical components. The concepts and developed model are illustrated by application to the 6-bus Roy Billinton Test System (RBTS).