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Abstract: The electrical energy production and reliability benefits of a wind energy conversion system (WECS) at a specific site depend on many factors, including the statistical characteristics of the site wind speed and the design characteristics of the wind turbine generator (WTG) itself, particularly the cut-in, rated and cut-out wind speed parameters. In general, the higher the degree of the wind site matching with a WECS is, the more are the energy and reliability benefits. An electrical energy production and reliability benefit index designated as the Equivalent Capacity Ratio (ECR) is introduced in this paper. This index can be used to indicate the electrical energy production, the annual equivalent utilization time and the credit of a WECS, and quantify the degree of wind site matching with a WECS. The equivalent capacity of a WECS is modeled as the expected value of the power output random variable with the probability density function of the site wind speed. The analytical formulation of the ECR is based on a mathematical derivation with high accuracy. Twelve WTG types and two test systems are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. The results show that the ECR provides a useful index for a WTG to evaluate the energy production and the relative reliability performance in a power system, and can be used to assist in the determination of the optimal WTG type for a specific wind site. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Power system component failures can generally be classified into two categories: repairable random failures and aging failures. An essential step in power system reliability evaluation is the calculation of component unavailability. The paper presents a new model for calculating the unavailability due to aging failures using the normal distribution. It is based on the strictly mathematical derivation and can be used more easily with high accuracy compared to the traditional model. An example of seven generating units and two test systems of the RBTS and the IEEE-RTS were used to demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed model and its applications in power system reliability evaluation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]