Transmission grid refurbishment project on the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) high voltage power network

Transmission grid refurbishment is not an easy thing to do considering the fact that the exercise does not result in an increase in revenue since the same power flows through the refurbished equipment as through the old system. The traditional methods of justifying the project on return on investment basis are therefore not easy to apply in motivating for transmission grid refurbishment. This paper presents an alternative method based on lifetime assessment and attempts to answer the question on how long should electric utilities sweat their assets before embarking on asset replacement. The method was successfully applied on the Zimbabwean ZESA transmission grid resulting in a phased approach to the refurbishment exercise