A Gradient-Based Capacity Accreditation Framework in Resource Adequacy: Formulation, Computation, and Practical Implications

Abstract: Probabilistic resource adequacy assessment is a cornerstone of modern capacity accreditation. This paper develops a gradient-based framework, in which capacity accreditation is interpreted as the directional derivative of a probabilistic resource adequacy metric with respect to resource capacity, that unifies two widely used accreditation approaches: Effective Load Carrying Capability (ELCC) and Marginal Reliability Impact (MRI). Under mild regularity conditions, we show that marginal ELCC and MRI yield equivalent accreditation factors, while their numerical implementations exhibit markedly different computational characteristics. Building on this framework, we demonstrate how infinitesimal perturbation analysis enables up to a $1000\times$ speedup in gradient estimation for capacity accreditation, and we implement gradient-informed search algorithms that significantly accelerate ELCC computations relative to standard bisection methods. Large-scale Monte Carlo experiments show that MRI achieves substantial runtime reductions compared to ELCC and exhibits greater robustness to perturbation step-size selection. These results provide practical guidance for implementing efficient and scalable capacity accreditation in large-scale power systems.