Regulating Electricity Distribution Reliability in Finland under European Steering Context : Methodology for enhanced evaluation
Seppälä, Joel (2025)
Tampere University
2025
Tieto- ja sähkötekniikan tohtoriohjelma - Doctoral Programme in Computing and Electrical Engineering
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Väitöspäivä
2025-10-17
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-4080-3
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-4080-3
Tiivistelmä
Electricity distribution is a critical service in modern society, and interruptions can quickly lead to customer dissatisfaction. If service quality appears unreasonable, users may question whether their mandatory payments are being used efficiently. However, assessing fairness from an individual perspective is difficult, as many background processes—such as long-term network planning—are not visible to the public.
This dissertation examines how regulation influences electricity supply reliability particularly in the 21st century, using open and publicly available regulatory data. A data-driven method was developed to analyze multidimensional monitoring data, revealing that distribution system operators (DSOs) can be grouped into 5 to 7 clusters based on similarities in producing the network service. Geographical conditions and the share of underground cabling help explain the result, indicating that traditional subjective classifications (urban, semi-urban, rural) do not adequately capture operational realities. This highlights the need for extended performance measurement in the assessment of reasonable pricing.
Rather than focusing solely on traditional technical reliability indicators, this research adopts a broader approach by evaluating the total cost of distribution services— including actual operating costs, interruption costs, and allowed profits—in relation to the value created for society. Based on the examined regulation data, network investments are associated with increased total distribution costs, while potentially offering benefits in terms of available capacity. These findings emphasize the need to evaluate the multidimensional value created by DSOs, rather than relying on the traditional two-dimensional view of investment and reliability.
The proposed input-output approach enables a more nuanced analysis of network service and its efficiency. Defining an efficient price level remains complex due to environmental variation and uncertainty in demand, highlighting the need for further research into mathematical modeling of operating conditions.
This dissertation examines how regulation influences electricity supply reliability particularly in the 21st century, using open and publicly available regulatory data. A data-driven method was developed to analyze multidimensional monitoring data, revealing that distribution system operators (DSOs) can be grouped into 5 to 7 clusters based on similarities in producing the network service. Geographical conditions and the share of underground cabling help explain the result, indicating that traditional subjective classifications (urban, semi-urban, rural) do not adequately capture operational realities. This highlights the need for extended performance measurement in the assessment of reasonable pricing.
Rather than focusing solely on traditional technical reliability indicators, this research adopts a broader approach by evaluating the total cost of distribution services— including actual operating costs, interruption costs, and allowed profits—in relation to the value created for society. Based on the examined regulation data, network investments are associated with increased total distribution costs, while potentially offering benefits in terms of available capacity. These findings emphasize the need to evaluate the multidimensional value created by DSOs, rather than relying on the traditional two-dimensional view of investment and reliability.
The proposed input-output approach enables a more nuanced analysis of network service and its efficiency. Defining an efficient price level remains complex due to environmental variation and uncertainty in demand, highlighting the need for further research into mathematical modeling of operating conditions.
Kokoelmat
- Väitöskirjat [5214]