LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT OF SWITCHGEAR REVIEW OF CIGRE WG 13.08'S TECHNICAL BROCHURE 165

摘要

In CIGRE Technical Brochure 165 "Life Management of Circuit-Breakers" [1] much attention has been given to the stresses in service, to methods to assess the residual life of a population of circuit-breakers and methods to support end-of-life decisions. Today, looking back, the developments in the industry, especially the societal and managerial developments, are such that certain aspects of the studies performed in the nineties may have to be reevaluated. Examples of developments to be addressed are: utilities generally expect high voltage equipment to provide service for more than 40 years rather than 25 years: asset management has introduced risk management with parameters such as regulatory aspects, societal aspects, risk appetite, transparency of decision making, life data analysis, handling probabilities and incomplete data; the permanent change of the organisational setting of utilities and manufacturers (merges, splitting, globalisation) with its consequences on the company's focus; the financial pressure, especially related to the operational costs, and therefore the requirement to run the plant longer; the strong need for flexible solutions (in terms of short delivery and erection times, low maintenance, high availability, low operational costs, high adaptability to the environment), upwards compatibility of primary and secondary plant, as offered by new technologies, including diagnostic and monitoring techniques; the higher environmental requirements, including reduction of space and volume; lack of staff, outsourcing, changing ownerships. Within CIGRE SC A3 further studies on life cycle management and the collection of service experience is recommended.