The Generating Availability Data System (GADS) is a database produced by the

North American Electric Reliability Corporation The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is a nonprofit corporation based in Atlanta, Georgia, and formed on March 28, 2006, as the successor to the North American Electric Reliability Council (also known as NERC). The original ...

(NERC). It includes annual summary reports comprising the statistics for

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

s in the United States and Canada. GADS is the main source of power station outage data in North America. This reporting system, initiated by the electric utility industry in 1982, expands and extends the data collection procedures begun by the industry in 1963. NERC GADS is recognized today as a valuable source of reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) information.North American Electric Reliability Corporation's (NERC) Generating Availability Data System (GADS) Data Reporting Instructions (DRI). This information, collected for both total unit and major equipment groups, is used by analysts industry-wide in numerous applications. GADS maintains complete operating histories on more than 5,800 generating units representing 71% of the installed generating capacity of the United States and Canada. GADS is a mandatory industry program for conventional generating units 50 MW and larger starting January 1, 2012 and 20 MW and larger starting January 1, 2013. GADS remains open to all non-required participants in the Regional Entities (shown in Figure I-2 of the NERC GADS DRI) and any other organization (domestic or international) that operate electric generating facilities who is willing to follow the GADS mandatory requirements as presented in the documen
Final GADSTF Recommendations Report dated July 20, 2011
GADS data consists of three data types: # Design – equipment descriptions such as manufacturers, number of

boiler feedwater pump A boiler feedwater pump is a specific type of pump used to pump feedwater into a steam boiler. The water may be freshly supplied or returning condensate produced as a result of the condensation of the steam produced by the boiler. These pumps are ...

s, steam turbine MW rating, etc. # Performance – summaries of generation produced, fuels units, start ups, etc. # Event – description of equipment failures such as when the event started/ended, type of outage (forced, maintenance, planned), etc. One example of such detail is that in its data pertaining to forced outages and unplanned unit failures, it makes the fine distinction between immediate, delayed, and postponed outages.{{cite book, pages=109, title=Energy and Power Risk Management, author=Alexander Eydeland and Krzysztof Wolyniec, publisher=

John Wiley and Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, in p ...

, year=2003, isbn=9780471455875 An important statistic calculated from the raw GADS data is the Equivalent

Forced Outage Rate In electrical engineering, forced outage is the shutdown condition of a power station, transmission line or distribution line when the generating unit is unavailable to produce power due to unexpected breakdown. Forced outage can be caused by equ ...

(EFOR), which is the hours of unit failure (unplanned outage hours and equivalent unplanned derated hours) given as a percentage of the total hours of the availability of that unit (unplanned outage, unplanned derated, and service hours). Recently, in response to the deregulated energy markets, the Equivalent Forced Outage Rate – Demand (EFORd) has taken on greater importance: * The probability that a unit will not meet its demand periods for generating requirements. * Best measure of reliability for all loading types (base, cycling, peaking, etc.) * Best measure of reliability for all unit types (fossil, nuclear, gas turbines, diesels, etc.) * For demand period measures and not for the full 24-hour clock. Industry Development of GADS Before any data element was included in GADS, an industry committee to determine its applicability to utility operation and RAM analyses scrutinized it. A series of industry meetings were held to discuss the analytical usefulness of each element and to determine if utilities could reasonably provide that data to GADS. Consequently, the only data requested in the GADS Data Reporting Instructions (DRI) meet industry-prescribed needs. The industry also realized a need to include standardized terminology in the GADS program if it were to function on an international scale. As a result, the definitions promulgated by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) Standard 762, "Definitions for Reporting Electric Generating Unit Reliability, Availability and Productivity" were incorporated. Utilities started their reporting using the GADS guidelines on January 1, 1982. GADS superseded the earlier data collection procedures begun by the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), a program started in the mid-1960s. GADS contains many of the same elements previously collected by EEI in addition to the many new data items. This seeming duplication of data was done intentionally: the EEI information can be derived from GADS so analyses that include data from earlier than 1982 can be completed.

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Electric power

See also

References