What does the Average Interruption Frequency Index (MAIFI) measure?

The Average Interruption Frequency Index (MAIFI) specifically measures momentary power interruptions per customer over a defined period, typically a year. This index is crucial for understanding the reliability of an electric power system, as it focuses on brief outages that may not significantly affect overall service but can still impact customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

MAIFI quantifies how often customers experience these short interruptions, providing valuable insight into the performance of electrical infrastructure. A higher MAIFI indicates more frequent momentary interruptions, suggesting potential issues with the distribution network that may need to be addressed to enhance service reliability.

In contrast, the other options focus on different aspects of power supply and customer experience. While total duration of power outages (the first choice) targets the length of outages rather than frequency, average number of customer complaints (the second choice) is unrelated to the actual intervals of power interruptions. Long-term loss of power supply (the fourth choice) assesses sustained outages, which differs significantly from the momentary outages that MAIFI evaluates.