Availability factor
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (July 2021) |
The availability factor of a
power plant is the duration it achieves production of electricity divided by the duration that it was planned to produce electricity. In the field of reliability engineering, availability factor is known as operational availability
, . The capacity factor of a plant includes numerous other factors which determine the durations the plant is planned to produce electricity. A solar photovoltaic plant is not planned to operate in the dark of a night, hence unplanned maintenance occurring whilst the sun is set does not impact the availability factor.
Periods of generation where only partial generation of planned capacity occurs may or may not be deducted from the availability factor. An example of partial generation is a power plant with four installed turbines planned to be concurrently operational, but one of those turbines subsequently requires unplanned maintenance. Where deductions are made the metric is titled equivalent availability factor (EAF).
The availability of a power plant varies greatly depending on the type of
combined cycle
plants.
Originally the term availability factor was used only for power plants that depended on an active, controlled supply of fuel, typically fossil or later also
Photovoltaic power stations which have few or no moving parts and which can undergo planned inspections and maintenance during night have an availability factor approaching or equal to 100% when the sun is shining.[citation needed
]
See also
- Operational availability – Measurement of the actual versus predicted uptime of a system
- Capacity factor – Electrical production measure
- Forced outage rate– shutdown condition of a power station, transmission line or distribution line when the generating unit is unavailable to produce power due to unexpected breakdown
- Generating Availability Data System – US power plant information
- High availability – Systems with high up-time, a.k.a. "always on"
- List of energy storage projects
- Reliability engineering – Sub-discipline of systems engineering that emphasizes dependability
- Uptime – Period when a computer system is available
- Utilization factor – Ratio of the time that a piece of equipment is in use to the total time that it could be in use
References
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Std 762-2006 - IEEE Standard Definitions for Use in Reporting Electric Generating Unit Reliability, Availability, and Productivity
- ^ "AVAILABILITY FACTOR". huronwind.com. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
