Assessment of the actual condition of the electrical components in medium-voltage networks

Due to the large amount of electrical equipment and the costs of an individual diagnosis in medium-voltage networks, a general consideration of some representative electrical components is necessary to assess the actual condition of the electrical equipment. For a life model of electrical components, the individual aging phenomena of representative electrical components, as well as the general aging mechanisms of insulating materials, are taken into account in this paper. The aging of insulating materials can be estimated by an electrical breakdown occurring in electrical components so that the relationship between lifetime and failure probability of electrical components may be studied using the life model, the probabilistic failure model, and the enlargement law which are reasonably able to investigate the cause & consequence of failure in medium-voltage networks. Thereby, a new approach is developed for the assessment of the actual condition of electrical components in terms of failure time, failure probability, hazard rate, and other related variables of electrical components in medium-voltage networks. These reliability issues will support the decision-making in future deregulation of the electric energy market. Furthermore the model is verified through some electrical components like conductors, cables, transformers, and circuit-breakers with their specific failure statistics. It is demonstrated that the method is able to assess the actual condition of electrical components in medium-voltage networks with reasonable, accurate data.