Effects of preventive maintenance on circuit breakers and protection systems upon substation reliability

This paper considers the effects that preventive maintenance on circuits breakers and protection systems inside substations can have on the reliability of electricity supply. By performing preventive maintenance, the probability of a failure to operate of the circuit breaker (unrevealed fault) can be reduced, provided that the preventive maintenance process is carefully carried out. On the other hand, the probability and frequency of an overlapping failure event increases when the frequency of performing preventive maintenance on circuit breakers and protection systems increases. This article shows that an optimal preventive maintenance frequency can be deduced dependent on the substation topology, provided that the maintenance process is carefully carried out. The paper demonstrates also that carelessly performed preventive maintenance can even lead to a decrease in reliability of electricity supply. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.