Decision support for life time management of HV infrastructures

Nowadays, power utilities have more or less the obligation to maintain their asset network. Regulators demand a reliable power supply of high quality. Furthermore, as the market w ill be open, failure can lead to a loss of imago, with the effect of customers choosing other power companies to buy their energy from. Therefore, a well considered maintenance program is necessary to obtain a high quality network. The asset managers of the network owner are responsible for the reliability and availability of the high voltage components. Dependent on the maintenance strategy, which is applied by the asset manager, the maintenance program can be influenced. Strategies can be based on reliability management or more based on risk management. Furthermore, the availability of assets, which gives the possibility of maintenance activities, is influenced by the investment plan of asset management. This contribution discusses a systematic approach to come to a considered maintenance program for HV components. In particular, the authors look at it from different points of view. Figure below shows a diagram-based overview, concerning the different aspects of a life time decision support for HV infrastructures. These various aspects will be discussed point to point with main focuson power cable systems as power cables play an important role in the distribution of the electric energy to the utility’s customers.