WHAT ARE SAIFI, SAIDI AND MAIFI? ON RELIABILITY ISSUES?

SAIFI, SAIDI, MAIFI are some of the indices used to measure distribution system reliability. Before explaining them a little on the subject of reliability. eliability can be defined as the ability of the po!er system components to deli"er electricity to all points of consumption, in the #uantity $ !ith the #uality demanded by the consumer. eliability is often measured by the outage indices defined in one international standard called I%%% &'((. )I%%% is the Institution of %lectrical $ %lectronics %ngineers, the biggest professional body of %lectrical $ %lectronics %ngineers. I%%% has its head office in the *SA $ has presence in most countries+. ,hese outage indices are based on the duration of each po!er supply interruption $ the fre#uency of interruption. It is clear that all three major functional components of the po!er system - generation, transmission $ distribution contribute to reliability. As far as the consumer is concerned, transmission $ distribution outages are important. In fact, sur"eys )in de"eloped countries+ sho! that ./01/2 of the outages experienced by consumers are caused by distribution outages. A po!er supply outage is an unplanned e"ent $ can be described in terms of the fre#uency, duration $ amount of load )or consumers+ affected. A momentary outage is defined as an outage lasting less than 3 minutes, corresponding to the time ta4en by automatic re0closure schemes to restore temporary faults5 a sustained outage lasts longer than 3 minutes )6% 7 &11(+. I%%% standard &'(( gi"es the definition for outage indices. ,hese indices are calculated using details of consumer interruptions collected from past year8s or se"eral year8s data. Definitions of fe! of the indices are gi"en belo!9 System Average Interru t!"n Fre#uen$y In%e& 'SAIFI( SAIFI is the a"erage number of sustained interruptions per consumer during the year. It is the ratio of the annual number of interruptions to the number of consumers. SAIFI : ),otal number of sustained interruptions in a year+ ; ),otal number of consumers+ System Average Interru t!"n Durat!"n In%e& 'SAIDI( SAIDI is the a"erage duration of interruptions per consumers during the year. It is the ratio of the annual duration of interruptions )sustained+ to the number of consumers. If duration is specified in minutes, SAIDI is gi"en as consumer minutes. SAIDI : ,otal duration of sustained interruptions in a year ; total number of consumers SAIFI $ SAIDI are the most used pair of reliability indices. A 6orth American sur"ey sho!ed SAIFI figure of &.& )indicating &.& interruption;year;consumer+ $ SAIDI of &.3 hours. Singapore is reported to ha"e a SAIDI of ' minutes. For comparison, the 6D<= tariff submission for >//30/( gi"es SAIDI figure of '. hours for >//'0/? $ a target of '/ hours for >//?0/3 )>'+ )"nsumer Average Interru t!"n Fre#uen$y In%e& ')AIFI( 7AIFI is the a"erage number of interruptions for consumers !ho experience interruptions during the year. It is the ratio of the annual number of interruptions to the number of consumers affected by interruptions during the year. 7onsumer is counted only once regardless of the number of interruptions. 7AIFI : ,otal number of sustained interruptions in a year;,otal number of consumers affected. )"nsumer Average Interru t!"n Durat!"n In%e& ')AIDI( 7AIDI is the a"erage duration of an interruption, calculated based on the total number of sustained interruptions in a year. It is the ratio of the total duration of interruptions to the total number of interruptions during the year. 7AIDI : ,otal duration of sustained interruptions in a year;total number of interruptions. It can also be seen that 7AIDI : SAIDI;SAIFI M"mentary Average Interru t!"n Fre#uen$y In%e& 'MAIFI( MAIFI is the a"erage number of momentary )less than 3 minutes+ interruptions per consumer during the year. It is the ratio of the annual number of momentary interruptions to the number of consumers.

MAIFI : ),otal number of momentary interruptions in a year + ; ),otal number of consumers+ ,he A< regulation suggests using ' supply reliability indices SAIFI )System A"erage Interruption Fre#uency Index+, SAIDI )System A"erage Interruption Duration Index+ $ MAIFI )Momentary A"erage Interruption Fre#uency Index+. ,hese are typical reliability indices related to consumer supply, calculated using annual field data. ,he A< regulation )and as seen subse#uently, all other State regulations+ use these indices in the feeder context, !ith some change in the formula for calculations. ,hus SAIFI, SAIDI $ MAIFI refer to && 4@ feeder interruptions )not consumer interruptions+ $ the index is calculated using one month data )not annual data+. ,he interruption is also gi"en a !eight age, based on the connected load on the respecti"e feeder. ,o illustrate using the case of SAIFI. SAIFI : S*M )7onnected load of feeder A 6umber of sustained interruptions of this feeder in the month+ 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 ),otal connected load on all feeders+ It can be seen that this is not an a"erage "alue, since the total number of interruptions is not used in the calculation. SAIFI as calculated here is the !eighted total number of feeder interruptions, i.e the sum of indi"idual feeder interruption !eighted by the proportion of load it carries. ,hus, it cannot be used to compare reliability figures of t!o utilities !hich ha"e different number of feeders. Indices for rural $ urban feeders are to be calculated separately. Feeders ser"ing predominantly agriculture loads are excluded from the calculation $ indices for those are also to be separately calculated. Since these calculations are no!, the regulation does not suggest any target "alues for these indices. 7onsidering the lac4 of reliable data on consumer interruptions, it is a good idea the So< regulation suggests using feeder interruption data to calculate reliability. But then, it !as perhaps not necessary to employ jargon li4e SAIFI, SAIDI etc, especially since the formula suggested are not as per the standard. 7alculating the a"erage duration $ fre#uency of && 4@ feeder interruptions, calculating the per 4m interruption of && 4@ feeders etc !ould ha"e been easier $ sufficient to assess system reliability.