Substation power transformer risk management: Reflecting On reliability centered maintenance and monitoring

The main objective of this article is to propose a methodology for prioritizing actions in predictive maintenance substation equipment, applied to Power Transformers, which are eventually responsible for the income revenue of energy companies (generation, transmission and distribution). This is a reflection on the failure analysis and risk management with optimal use of predictive maintenance, to reduce or eliminate transformer shutdowns. Using statistical concepts, this proposal goes through various stages of application, and addresses power transformer differences (generation, transmission and distribution), aspects of life cycle, operation, maintenance, aging, depreciation, aspects of reliability, risk of failure and effectiveness of predictive techniques. The basic process concept lays on stratification and consolidation of data from studies in the area of reliability centered maintenance, combined with historical information, taking also into account the diagnosis on equipment condition based on monitoring and predictive concept.