LAUSR

Abstract The multi-reservoir system has remarkable advantages that mostly come from benefit compensation among reservoirs. However, no in-depth studies on dynamic benefit compensation in a multi-reservoir system have been conducted. This study presents a comprehensive framework to quantitatively evaluate reliability of the multi-reservoir system, which is integrated with techniques of importance analysis, compensation mechanism, and uncertainty analysis. Two simplified series-parallel connections of the multiple reservoirs and three major reservoirs are introduced to demonstrate the application of the proposed framework. The importance-based system reliability analysis and benefit compensation strategy are then given. The importance level can be served as an evaluation indicator for providing answers to a set of questions with respect to which connection mode should be used, how many members should be integrated; and how long the operational time should be ensured. Results show that a low member’s failure rate would result in a low importance level and then to an insignificant effect on system reliability. The effect induced by the connection mode would be most significant than that induced by the failure rate. An optimal compensation proportions for the three major reservoirs would be achieved according to the member’s importance level and characteristic index with an overall satisfaction degree of 0.7380.