Abstract
This work aims at exploring the effects of the interconnection between isolated electric power systems upon some important aspects such as enhancing reliability levels as well as reducing installation and operation costs. For this study to become meaningful and rewarding, the developed methodology has been applied to three existing power systems in the northern region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia presently within the concession domain of the Saudi Electric Company (SEC). These systems have been established to meet the present loads and withstand future electrical demands for a period of time before any additional generation and transmission facilities are needed. In this work, reliability measures have been utilized in order to know the period that these systems can withstand the present and future loads without affecting the reliability levels and the threshold that an additional capacity should be added in order to maintain those required reliability levels. In application to the reliability criteria, technical, operational and economic advantages can be realized, i.e., higher reliability levels and lower installation and operation cost after the proposed interconnection between these selected isolated power systems under study takes place.