Maintenance planning on MV distribution network

The proper technical-economical management of maintenance activities of distribution installations and lines is becoming more and more important. In the Italian MV distribution network, preventive maintenance is generally planned through two main activities: periodic inspection; and systematic monitoring. The periodic inspection allows the fulfilling of safety requirements and the prevention of fault causes due to possible interferences with the ambient surroundings. The systematic monitoring of all the MV network through the information collected by the network telecontrol system should allow one to follow the behaviour of the installation components and consequently to identify type and location of specific maintenance requirements. To fulfil the objective, the systematic monitoring is supplemented by “focused” inspection. Guidelines, developed in order to increase the efficiency and the efficacy of these practices, are described. Particular attention has been devoted to the training of operational staff both on inspection activities and on interpretation of data gathered by systematic monitoring. Moreover, suitable instrumentation is specified to facilitate the location of the components needing maintenance