Probabilistic criteria allows for less conservative substation designs, but requires a more careful observation of short-circuit levels. In this paper we are particularly interested on the possibility of using this technique for monitoring short-circuit levels as a normal function of a modem control centre. The paper demonstrates the feasibility of determining probability density curves by running a number of simulations in a heterogeneous computing network used as a parallel virtual machine. The techniques described in the paper can be applied to a range of loosely coupled problems such as contingency analysis, multi-case transient stability studies, reliability evaluation, and probabilistic short circuit analysis. This paper specifically deals with the distributed implementation of short-circuit analysis. Results include performance indices such as efficiencies, speedups, total computing times, and communication times. Tests have been performed with three real-life systems. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.222129136