A structured approach to Asset Management within the electricity industry

Abstract

Pressures are increasing upon utilities world-wide to provide a high quality of service at minimum cost, which requires a well founded Asset Management Policy to ensure network assets remain in a satisfactory condition. This issue is particularly acute in the UK Electricity Supply Industry where assets have attained high levels of reliability and failure data are limited, making Asset Management decisions difficult. By drawing upon examples observed in other industries a structured approach to Asset Management is developed. The approach contains six stages which are explained in detail together with a discussion of practical implementation. It is intended that the framework is sufficiently general that it can be applied to any industrial context, although the particular application to Oil-filled Circuit Breakers is detailed.