A Petri net model for optimization of inspection and preventive maintenance rates

Degradation of power system components can be reduced through preventative maintenance. In addition, optimizing inspection and preventive maintenance rates is of great importance since too little or an excessive amount of maintenance can have undesirable consequences. Conventional approaches are not applicable to practical and large-scale systems due to their inherent restrictions, such as complexity and computational burden. In this paper, a Petri net (PN) maintenance model is proposed to consider degradation, inspection, and repair processes as well as random and aging-related failures. It has great flexibility since some constraints can be imposed on the maximum number of maintenance actions, or the maintenance can be inhibited at any deteri-oration state without the need to change the model structure. Another advantage of this model is that it can handle the dependent deterioration among components. All the mentioned aspects are illustrated by applying the model to some circuit breakers (CBs) of the Roy Billinton test system (RBTS). The simulation results reveal that the obtained inspection rates could differ from the conventional methods resulting in lower total costs. It is also demonstrated that the proposed model can be linked with maintenance decision-making and asset management tools.