System operators are required to serve the load in the most cost-effective way while maintaining the integrity of the system and heeding reliability requirements. In the day-ahead market, operators acquire reserves in an attempt to guarantee N-1 reliability; yet, reserve deliverability is not guaranteed. Prior research has shown that the use of transmission switching, or topology control, may help improve reserve deliverability. In this paper, transmission switching is used as a corrective mechanism to help the system achieve N-1-1 reliability, where not only has the system lost a single element, but also it experiences the loss of a second major element after an adjustment period. In an attempt to preserve N-1-1 reliability, for this paper, a day-ahead unit commitment model that acquires supplementary reserves is solved. The day-ahead market solution is then tested for N-1-1 reliability using contingency analysis models with and without transmission switching. The methodology can be employed at the day-ahead time stage to ensure the system has acquired sufficient supplemental reserves. The results demonstrate that not only can corrective transmission switching be beneficial post-contingency without inhibiting the ability to return to N-1 reliability, but it can also help obtain an N-1-1 reliable solution.

In response to a request from Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water, a resource adequacy model was developed to assess Kuwait’s ability to supply sufficient energy to meet the load demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Power system operators and utilities use this type of model to ascertain their ability to meet demand, most notably peak demand. The model includes active power loss as well as the loss of resource capacity under medium and large contingencies. As resource adequacy models do not take into account security constraints such as transmission limits and voltage, they cannot be used for operations. However, due to their simplicity, they are appropriate for studying a wide range of scenarios for formulating policy decisions. Resource adequacy analysis can provide valuable insights into the performance of a system under urgent conditions such as the one posed by COVID-19 and similar unforeseen disruptions. This model utilizes an analysis of historical load data to forecast the 2020 peak load and develop a number of scenarios to test the capacity margin of Kuwait’s power system. The scenarios vary based upon load growth (2–25 %) and whether there is an outage or unavailable generation (no outage, 720 MW outage, 1440 MW, and 2400 MW outage).