Steering effect of distribution reliability regulation

Abstract

Since electricity is becoming more clearly the cornerstone of functioning society, the reliability of electricity distribution is more important than ever. Improved reliability comes with increased costs; evaluation is needed to find balance in reasonable reliability and costs. This study describes the Finnish regulation regime and shows the achieved system-level reliability in the past decades. The system-level reliability shows no significant change after 1990s, though major storms cause fluctuation in the data. Further examination is needed to differentiate environmental factors and the steering effect of regulation from the reliability data.