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Combined reliability and risks of the componentsbased maintenance framework as an asset management stage for power distribution utilities application

Abstract:

Generally, the conventional approach to time-based maintenance leads to a misallocation of resources and decision making, because it uses unrealistic statistical rules and assumptions, which do not conform to the behavior of real power systems. The aging of the assets, meeting the standards of reliability and quality of service, has become a major concern and challenge for worldwide distribution companies. Meeting these requirements implies incorporating new techniques and philosophies that allow improving the efficiency in the use of maintenance resources. This article presents a maintenance management framework applied to electricity distribution companies, which combines strategies based on the reliability (RCM) and risk (RBM) of the components associated with the distribution networks. Combining these strategies, allows to determine an optimal maintenance plan and as a result, it is possible to achieve the proposed objectives of the electricity distribution company, which are, to improve the reliability indexes of the system and the allocation of the resources available for maintenance. To validate and analyze the practical aspects, the proposed framework is applied in a part of a distribution network of Empresa Eléctrica Quito S.A., although it has been successfully tested in an electrical distribution network, this approach is applicable in the power industry.