Reliability Based Framework for Cost-Effective Replacement of Power Transmission Equipment

This paper presents a probabilistic framework for making decisions about the replacement of ageing power equipment. The framework involves three steps: first, to identify the most important and critical components of the system for overall system reliability; secondly, to perform Pareto analysis to relate the replacement of the components to the effect on system reliability indices; finally, to determine the optimum scenario for replacement based on a comparison between the cost of unreliability due to deferring the replacement and the saving on reinvestment cost. The proposed approach is illustrated on a meshed test system modeled using U.K. transmission system parameters, a representative transformer age profile and regulatory energy not supplied values. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the framework for application in the area of power system reliability, and show its feasibility for informing replacement decisions.