Abstract
Among different maintenance strategies that exist for power distribution systems, the Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) strategy attempts to introduce a structured framework for planning maintenance programs by relying on network reliability studies and cost/benefit considerations. For the implementation of the RCM strategy, the electricity distribution companies try to optimally utilize the existing financial resources in order to reduce the maintenance costs and improve the reliability of the network. The aim of this paper is to present a practical method for devising an appropriate maintenance strategy for network elements and for preventive maintenance budget planning, with the goal of improving the system reliability and reducing the maintenance costs. In the proposed method, the critical outage causes of the distribution system are determined on the basis of cost and reliability criteria, by the Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method. Then, the optimum preventive maintenance budget is calculated by obtaining the cost functions of the critical elements and optimizing the overall cost function. In this investigation, the medium voltage distribution network of the “Haft Tir” district in Tehran has been chosen for the implementation of the proposed RCM strategy. Key words: Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), preventive maintenance (PM), technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), power distribution system.
Highlights
One of the most important goals of power distribution companies is to provide uninterrupted and quality service to their customers (Brown, 2002)
The aim of this paper is to present a practical method for devising an appropriate maintenance strategy for network elements and for preventive maintenance budget planning, with the goal of improving the system reliability and reducing the maintenance costs
This investigation has been based on the outage information of the mentioned network for the years 2005-2012, which has been extracted from the incidents logging software of the Greater Tehran Electricity Distribution Company (GTEDC)
Summary
One of the most important goals of power distribution companies is to provide uninterrupted and quality service to their customers (Brown, 2002) In this regard, the electricity distribution companies try to select an optimum maintenance strategy in order to reduce the failure rate of network equipment and increase the reliability of the system. The huge maintenance expenditures and the inefficiency of these methods in reducing the outages in the system made it necessary to develop a more effective and comprehensive maintenance strategy; a strategy based on the ability to monitor network reliability and to consider the interrelationship between reliability and maintenance costs.
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