Reliability-Centered Maintenance Strategy for Redundant Power Networks Using the Cut Set Method

In this study, we present an efficient maintenance strategy for securing stable power supplies in power facilities. In general, industrial customers that may face large outage costs from power supply interruptions prepare highly reliable systems with redundant network topologies. When establishing a maintenance schedule for an industrial power system, the condition of the equipment should be inspected first. However, frequent inspections may result in excessive inspection costs, and infrequent inspections may reduce the reliability of the system. Therefore, it is necessary to determine an optimal maintenance and inspection interval that balances the demand for reliable electricity and the need to limit maintenance and inspection costs. Accordingly, considering the topology of the equipment in terms of the system as a whole, a reliability-centered maintenance algorithm was derived to determine the specific combinations of equipment conditions that cause power outages. Generally, the more redundant the elements in the system were, the less the load experienced power outages. We also examined the unavailability, which is an indicator that predicts the probability of the load becoming unpowered. Finally, we obtained an optimal inspection interval and maintenance decision table for events that occur in practice.