Life asset management of the electrical components in medium-voltage networks

Due to the large amount of electrical apparatus and the costs of an individual diagnosis in medium-voltage networks, a general consideration of some representative electrical components to assess the lifetime of the electrical apparatus is necessary. Under the investigation of the general ageing mechanisms of individual electrical components, a new method for the assessment of the lifetime of the electrical components is presented in this paper. This method utilises the life model, the probabilistic failure model and the enlargement law to predict the failure probability and the failure rate of the electrical components in medium-voltage networks for a future time period. Therefore, a relationship between lifetime and reliability of the electrical components is developed which supports the decisionmaking in deregulation of the electrical energy market later. It is demonstrated with cable and transformer data that the method is able to assess the lifetime and reliability of the electrical components with accurate and convenient data.