Abstract:Since the advent and integration of information technology into power industry, the complexity of modern power systems and advances in the power industry toward restructuring, the system models and algorithms of traditional reliability assessment techniques are becoming obsolete as they suffer from nonrealistic system models and slow convergence (even non-convergence) when multi-level contingencies are considered and the system is overstressed. To allow more rigor in system modeling and higher computational efficiency in reliability evaluation procedures, this paper proposes an analytically-based security-constrained adequacy evaluation (SCAE) methodology that performs bulk power system reliability assessment and gave an in depth analysis of the concept of the state of the art in bulk power system reliability assessment. Bulk power system reliability assessment is an important procedure at both power system planning and operating stages to assure reliable and acceptable electricity service to customers.