ETAP FAQ - Active and Passive Failure Rates

ETAP FAQ # 17 - Differences Between Active and Passive Failure Rates
ETAP FAQ # 17
Differences Between Active and Passive Failure Rates
Description: What are the differences between Active and Passive Failure Rates?
Version: ETAP 4.0 and higher
Published: March 30, 2004
Introduction
Power systems have evolved over decades with their main emphasis focused towards providing reliable and economic supply
of electrical energy to their customers. Spare or redundant capacities in generation and network facilities can be built but the
main question has been, “how much redundancy and at what cost?” Economic concerns like these have been widely
recognized and are part of the design, planning, and operating criteria for most power system operators. Techniques such
as Reliability Assessment have been developed in an attempt to resolve and satisfy the dilemma between economic
and reliability constraints.
Distribution system reliability assessment is concerned with the availability and quality of power supply at each customer’s
service entrance. Analysis of customer failure statistics shows that failures in distribution systems contribute as much as
90% towards the unavailability of supply to a load as compared with the rest of the electric power system. These
statistics reinforce the need for reliability evaluation of distribution systems.
Failure Rate
The main cause for reliability concern is “failure” and the rate at which it occurs. IEEE STD 493-1990 defines a “failure” as
any trouble with a power system component that causes any of the following events to occur:
1. Partial or complete plant shutdown or below-standard plant operation
2. Unacceptable performance of user’s equipment
3. Operation of the electrical protective relaying or emergency operation of the plant electrical system
4. De-energization of any electric circuit or equipment
The failure rate or forced outage rate is defined as the mean number of failures of a component per unit exposure time.
Usually exposure time is expressed in years and failure rate is expressed in failures per year.
It must be noted that failure is not only caused by equipment failure but also switching operation of breakers following short
circuit faults. Consider the two simple substations as shown.
When T1 fails, the input breaker CB1 should operate

causing an interruption of load point Load1 only. Similarly
failure of T2 will interrupt load point Load2 only.
When T3 fails, input breaker CB6 will operate causing

interruption of both load points. Similarly failure of T4 will
interrupt both load points. If it is not possible or practical to
isolate the failed component, breaker CB6 will remain open
until the relevant component has been repaired or
replaced. In this case both load points will remain
disconnected until repairs are done.
It is now evident that switching actions must be modeled and simulated in the reliability evaluation process. When
switching actions occur, a three state model is required. The three states are:
i. State before fault
ii. State after fault but before isolation
iii. State after isolation but before repair is completed
In some cases breakers are not required to operate, e.g., open circuits and inadvertent operation of breakers. In these cases
a two state model only is necessary.
These states are:

1. State before the fault
2. State after the fault but before repair is completed.
If the repair process is assumed to be the same in both cases, the two models can be superimposed to give a combined
state space diagram.
The two modes of failure, one leading to state R and the other to state S, have been designated active and passive
failures respectively.
Active and Passive Failures
Passive event can be defined as a component failure mode that does not cause operation of protection breakers and does
not have an impact on the remaining energized system. Service is restored by repairing or replacing the failed device.
Examples are open circuits and inadvertent opening of breakers.
Active event can be defined as a component failure mode that causes the operation of the primary protection zone around
the failed component and can cause the removal of other energized components and branches from service. The actively
failed component is isolated and the protection breakers are reclosed. This leads to service being restored to some or all
load points.
Example:

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What is the difference between active and passive failures?

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ETAP FAQ # 17 - Differences Between Active and Passive Failure Rates

Version: ETAP 4.0 and higher

Published: March 30, 2004

When T1 fails, the input breaker CB1 should operate

When T3 fails, input breaker CB6 will operate causing

These states are:

Active and Passive Failures

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