In
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
, forced outage is the shutdown condition of a
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 electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...
,
transmission line
In electrical engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable or other structure designed to conduct electromagnetic waves in a contained manner. The term applies when the conductors are long enough that the wave nature of the transmis ...
or
distribution line when the
generating unit is unavailable to produce power due to unexpected breakdown.
Forced outage can be caused by equipment failures, disruption in the power plant fuel supply chain, operator error etc.
Forced outage rate
Forced outage rate (FOR or FOAR) of a
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 electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...
unit is the probability that the unit will not be available for service when required.
FOR is defined as the number of hours the unit is on forced outage over the total number of hours in a year (which is the sum of hours the power station is available for service and hours the power station is in forced outage).
Two derivative metrics are also used:
* equivalent forced outage rate (EFOR, also equipment EFOR, EEFOR) has a different denominator: instead of the total number of hours in the year, only the hours when the unit was needed for load are counted.
* weighted EFOR (WEFOR) is EFOR weighted by the
capacity of the unit.
See also
*
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 electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...
References
Power stations
Forced outage rate
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