Maintenance Optimization Schedulingof Electric Power SystemsConsidering Renewable EnergySources

Abstract: Maintenance is crucial in any industry to keep components in a reasonable functionalcondition, especially in electric power system, where maintenance is done so that thefrequency and the duration of a fault can be shortened, thus increasing the availability of acertain component. And the reliability of the whole electric power system can also beimproved. In the many deregulated electricity markets, reliability and economic drivingforces are the two aspects that system operators mainly consider. It is expected for thesystem operator to provide consumers with the electricity of highest reliability and lowestcost. Therefore, in order to achieve this goal, providing the most economic maintenanceschedule is vital in today’s power systems. One technique is Reliability CentredMaintenance (RCM), which is an effective method to maintain a certain level ofreliability while carrying out maintenance schedules in an economic way. This thesis proposes an optimization problem for implementing the RCM method for apower system with renewable energy generators such as hydro power, wind power andsolar panel generators. This aim is achieved through the following steps: 1- Literature review on power system reliability. 2- Literature review on maintenance scheduling methods by focus on RCM method. 3- Compare the difference of conventional generators and renewable generators andmodel renewable generators in the power system. 4- Formulating the RCM method as an optimization problem. 5- The formulated model in 4 should be simulated for a test system using MATLAB. 6- The developed model in 5 is solved for different sets of available maintenanceIIstrategies. 7- Summing all possible costs when different maintenance strategies are carried outand compare the costs. Choose the maintenance strategy with the lower cost tocarry out the maintenance.