Reliability and maintenance practices for Australian and New Zealand HV transmission lines

Electricity supply authorities throughout the world are under pressure to perform more efficiently and continue to meet demand yet face increasing environmental pressure not to construct additional transmission lines. This means that existing lines must work harder and last longer than ever before. Traditional maintenance activities based on standard inspection periods will need to be replaced by strategies to identify the lines most in need of work or which constitute the greatest risk to the system. This paper reviews Australian and New Zealand practices for transmission line maintenance. It presents the results of a comprehensive survey of line maintenance practices and reliability for electricity supply authorities throughout this region