Nowadays, utilities aim to find methods for improving the reliability of distribution systems and satisfying the customers by providing the continuity of power supply. Different methodologies exist for utilities to improve the reliability of network. In this paper, demand response (DR) programs and smart charging/discharging of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are investigated for improving the reliability of radial distribution systems adopting particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Such analysis is accomplished due to the positive effects of both DR and PEVs for dealing with emerging challenges of the world such as fossil fuel reserves reduction, urban air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the prioritization of DR and PEVs is presented for improving the reliability and analyzing the characteristics of distribution networks. The reliability analysis is performed in terms of loss of load expectation (LOLE) and expected energy not served (EENS) indexes, where the characteristics contain load profile, load peak, voltage profile and energy loss. Numerical simulations are accomplished to assess the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed scheme.

The useful planning and operation of the energy system requires a sustainability assessment of the system, in which the load model adopted is the most important factor in sustainability assessment. Having information about energy consumption patterns of the appliances allows consumers to manage their energy consumption efficiently. Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) is an effective tool to recognize power consumption patterns from the measured data in meters. In this paper, an unsupervised approach based on dimensionality reduction is applied to identify power consumption patterns of home electrical appliances. This approach can be utilized to classify household activities of daily life using data measured from home electrical smart meters. In the proposed method, the power consumption curves of the electrical appliances, as high-dimensional data, are mapped to a low-dimensional space by preserving the highest data variance via principal component analysis (PCA). In this paper, the reference energy disaggregation dataset (REDD) has been used to verify the proposed method. REDD is related to real-world measurements recorded at low-frequency. The presented results reveal the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method in comparison to conventional procedures of NILM.

Yearly generation maintenance scheduling (GMS) of generation units is important in each system such as combined heat and power (CHP)-based systems to decrease sudden failures and premature degradation of units. Imposing repair costs and reliability deterioration of system are the consequences of ignoring the GMS program. In this regard, this research accomplishes GMS inside CHP-based systems in order to determine the optimal intervals for predetermined maintenance required duration of CHPs and other units. In this paper, cost minimization is targeted, and violation of units’ technical constraints like feasible operation region of CHPs and power/heat demand balances are avoided by considering related constraints. Demand-response-based short-term generation scheduling is accomplished in this paper considering the maintenance intervals obtained in the long-term plan. Numerical simulation is performed and discussed in detail to evaluate the application of the suggested mixed-integer quadratic programming model that implemented in the General Algebraic Modeling System software package for optimization. Numerical simulation is performed to justify the model effectiveness. The results reveal that long-term maintenance scheduling considerably impacts short-term generation scheduling and total operation cost. Additionally, it is found that the demand response is effective from the cost perspective and changes the generation schedule.