Bypass Penalties

摘要

TronderEnergi uses medium-voltage switch bypasses to minimize customer interruption costs caused by maintenance activities. In Norway, regulations on quality of supply penalize utilities when their customers' electricity is interrupted for routine maintenance. This incentive regulation differs from that imposed on the majority of utilities because the Norwegian utilities' continuity of supply regulation is based on customer interruption costs. The Council of European Energy Regulators, which performs extensive benchmarking in Europe, stated in its third report: "It is important to be aware that a scheme that allows companies to gain higher revenues by reducing planned interruptions can induce companies to adopt a more efficient maintenance program or, alternatively, create long-term risk due to insufficient maintenance of the network." The Norwegian penalty scheme - the cost of energy not supplied (CENS) - was introduced in 2001, and published statistics confirm system performance has improved significantly in terms of energy not supplied, interruption frequency and interruption duration. Customers interruption costs now exert considerable pressure on how maintenance activity is managed to minimize customer inconvenience. As a result, Norway's TronderEnergi adopted a new technique that enables non-interruptive maintenance of air-insulated load switches (AIS).