A development and application of circuit breakers diagnostic and monitoring

The advancement of processes controlled by microprocessors and their reliability, in conjunction with the highly competitive environment of North American utilities with deregulation, means that high reliability monitoring and diagnostic of circuit breakers is seen as a main solution to decrease safely the scheduled maintenance expenditures. These diagnostic and monitoring systems are tailored to the very diversified demands of each utility and are seen by many as a technological answer to the passage of "an optimized maintenance" or, in other words, to only just-on-time maintenance. This paper lists an application of the newly developed CBWatch-2 in Canada, following other applications in Australia, United Kingdom, and Brazil. The final objective is to increase the availability and, ultimately, the overall reliability of the transmission system by optimization of the maintenance practice and to make the utility more cost competitive.