Identification of critical components in power systems: A game theory application

As the electricity market undergoes continuous evolutions, along with the outdated nature of the grid, system operators would have to be able to more effectively manage the operation costs since waves of maintenance costs and equipment investments would be anticipated in the years to come. Strategic implementation of cost-effective reliability centered maintenance (RCM) approaches seems to be a key solution. This paper proposes an efficient method to assess the component criticality for the system overall reliability and further maintenance focuses. A solution concept of game theory, called Shapely Value, that is able to fairly identify the contribution of each single equipment to the system reliability performance once a high-order contingency occurs is proposed. The suggested framework would help in realizing where investments to be made in the grid to keep a desirable system performance from the reliability standpoint. Implemented on the IEEE Reliability Test System (IEEE-RTS), the effectiveness of the suggested framework is confirmed.