Analysis of the quantity and causes of outages in LV/MV electrical grids

Abstract

The paper considers the quantity and causes of outages in electric grids of low and medium voltages using the example of an electric grid of a regional power supply company. The main types of damage to the equipment of power lines and transformer substations were identified. Data on other areas of rural and urban electric grids are also analyzed. The main directions for reducing the quantity of outages in electric grids are proposed based on this analysis. Among them, there are the use of isolated wires in power transmission lines, the improvement of design of switching devices, switches and terminals of transformers, the application of technical condition diagnostics, the disaggregating of power lines and the increase of protection sensitivity of power lines. Most of the causes of equipment damage can be prevented by increasing the maintenance level of this equipment.