Life Expectancy Evaluation of the Wood Poles Which Support the Hellenic Electrical Distribution Network

The Hellenic electrical distribution lines have been basically supported with the use of wood poles. Outages due to aging, degradation, or broken wood poles may infer significant costs due to repair and loss of energy to consumers. Lifetime estimation of wood poles is significant for maintenance and replacement decisions at the power utility. The paper presents a methodology, based on a statistical analysis, for the evaluation of the life expectancy and the production of a survival curve of a typical Hellenic distribution wood pole in-service. The proposed methodology intends to minimize the life-cycle cost of inspection and refurbishment of wood poles in the distribution network of Hellas, something that is really important in the new competitive and liberating Hellenic electrical energy market.

[1]  G.S. Bhuyan.  Condition based serviceability and reliability assessment of wood pole structures , 1998, ESMO '98 - 1998 IEEE 8th International Conference on Transmission and Distribution Construction, Operation and Live-Line Maintenance Proceedings ESMO '98 Proceedings. ESMO 98 The Power is in Your Hand.

[2]  J. Lawless.  Statistical Models and Methods for Lifetime Data , 2002 .

[3]  N. L. Johnson,et al.  Survival Models and Data Analysis , 1982 .

[4]  M. Tableman,et al.  Survival Analysis Using S : Analysis of Time-to-Event Data , 2003 .

[5]  L. Rolfseng,et al.  Timing of Wood Pole Replacement Based on Lifetime Estimation , 2006, 2006 International Conference on Probabilistic Methods Applied to Power Systems.

[6]  A. Narayanan.  Probability and statistics in engineering and management science , 1972 .

[7]  Mahesh D. Pandey,et al.  Estimation of life expectancy of wood poles in electrical distribution networks , 2006 .

[8]  M. Evans.  Statistical Distributions , 2000 .

[9]  B. Gustavsen,et al.  Asset management of wood pole utility structures , 2004, 2004 International Conference on Probabilistic Methods Applied to Power Systems.

[10]  L. Rolfseng,et al.  Simulation of wood pole replacement rate and its application to life cycle economy studies , 2000 .

[11]  B. Gustavsen,et al.  Simulation of Wood Pole Replacement Rate: Application to Distribution Overhead Lines , 2002, IEEE Power Engineering Review.

[12]  R. Wolfe,et al.  Designated fiber stress for wood poles , 2005 .

[13]  Chi-Hsiang Wang,et al.  Probabilistic procedure for design of untreated timber poles in-ground under attack of decay fungi , 2008, Reliab. Eng. Syst. Saf..