The spinning reserve is the generation quota that must be synchronized (or that can be synchronized in a timely manner) with the aim to restore the loss of generation units, to supply increases in demand due to forecast errors, or to cope with generation capacity fluctuations of renewable sources. Thus, it is crucial that such amount is defined so as to adequately meet the required needs. For this, the system load profile and also the generating system characteristics must be duly considered. Inaccurate estimates of electrical demand can lead to the occurrence of load shedding. Similarly, overinvestment in capacity reserve may result in excessive costs to electric energy consumers. An acceptable representation for the load profile is to consider it as a random variable. This type of modeling allows the estimated peak load value to have its uncertainties intrinsically considered. Therefore, considering the inherent variability of demand and generation, it is then possible to estimate the risk of not supplying the system load through methods based on Monte Carlo simulation (SMC). Such methods have as their main advantage a relative robustness for evaluating indices that numerically measure the reliability level of the system; e.g., LOLP (loss of load probability). In this dissertation, the impact of uncertainties associated with demand, the variability of renewable sources and equipment failures will be evaluated in order to size the amount of generating reserve, within the scope of the operation of electric systems. SMC techniques are used to evaluate the reliability levels, considering several possibilities of load representation in a multi-area system. Among different scenarios analyzed, risk indices are calculated for system and areas, in order to assess whether the grid is reliable as a whole and also for all operating regions. In order to evaluate the proposed methodology, tests are performed with the IEEE-RTS (Reliability Test System) to respond if the area/system risk indices are within acceptable levels. Finally, the effect of inserting intermittent renewable sources into the system reserve is also discussed.