Power distribution system reliability assessment and improvement case of Jimma Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

A frequent and long lasting power interruption has become a serious problem in Ethiopia. This problem has highly affected the life and economic activity of the society. The cost of power interruption to the power utility and also to the industry is very significant. This research has made an assessment of this problem and explored potential mitigation techniques. The reliability assessment has been done on the 15 kV city feeder. The interruption data of years 2010 to 2015 has been evaluated to determine the customer interruption indices. The study has evaluated different mitigation alternatives to look at the possibilities of reliability improvement. ETAP software has been used to test the improvement potential of the reliability indices for the distribution system. Various alternatives have been assessed using heuristic method. Reliability indices such as SAIFI, SAIDI and EENS have been reduced by 84.75%, 85% and 88.651% respectively as compared with the base year average values.