A reliability-centered asset maintenance method for assessing the impact of maintenance in power distribution systems

This paper proposes a method for comparing the effect of different maintenance strategies on system reliability and cost. This method relates reliability theory with the experience gained from statistics and practical knowledge of component failures and maintenance measures. The approach has been applied to rural and urban distribution systems. In particular, a functional relationship between failure rate and maintenance measures has been developed for a cable component. The results show the value of using a systematic quantitative approach for investigating the effect of different maintenance strategies.