Framework for Threat Based Failure Rates in Transmission System Operation

Reliability of electrical transmission systems is presently managed by applying the deterministic N-1 criterion, or some variant thereof. This means that transmission systems are designed with at least one level of redundancy, regardless of the cost of doing so, or the severity of the risks they mitigate. In an operational context, the N-1 criterion provides a reliability target but it fails to accurately capture the dynamic nature of shortterm threats to transmission systems. Ongoing research aims to overcome this shortcoming by proposing new probabilistic reliability criteria. Such new criteria are anticipated to rely heavily on component failure rate calculations. This paper provides a threat modelling framework, using the Icelandic transmission system as an example, highlighting the need for improved data collection and failure rate modelling. The feasibility of using threat credibility indicators to achieve spatio-temporal failure rates, given minimal data, is explored in a case study of the Icelandic transmission system. The paper closes with a discussion on the assumptions and simplifications that are implicitly made in the formulation, and the additional work required for such an approach to be included in existing practices. Specifically, this paper is concerned only with short term and real-time management of electrical transmission systems.