Identification of critical generating units for maintenance: a game theory approach

With the rapid evolution of electricity markets and the need for higher economic efficiency of power industry, attempts for lowering down the maintenance costs as a large portion of system operation expenses seem imperative. Recognised as a crucial step in practical implementation of modern maintenance paradigms, e.g. reliability‐centred maintenance, this study proposes an efficient method to quantify the generating units’ criticality on the bulk power system reliability performance. The proposed approach utilises a solution concept of game theory and evaluates the contribution of each generating unit on the overall system reliability when a higher‐order contingency occurs. The suggested framework would lead to a fair identification of critical units in restructured power systems for more focused maintenance activities and also helps in recognising where investments should be made to improve the system reliability. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is confirmed through implementation on the IEEE 24‐bus reliability test system.