Applying Reliability Centered Maintenance to a digital protective relay

The implementation of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) method can assist in achieving cost effectiveness, and allow a greater understanding of the risk level that organizations presently manage. This systematic method identifies the most applicable and effective maintenance plan to avoid each failure mode of the equipment. The work presented here describes how the RCM methodology can be applied to a digital protective relay installed in a primary distribution substation. RCM can estimate failure before it occurs with predictive testing and inspection tools, as well as organize maintenance plans according to the impacts of protective relay failure on system reliability.