snerts50
Electrical
- Mar 5, 2012
- 12
I have been tasked yet again to try and poll my peers about a topic, Aging Infrastructures Condition monitoring & assessment for the Utility.
Anyone on this forum actively part of a Utility program for monitoring their equipment for replacement? Any general comments on how well that works, what could be done better, etc? Is there some new, interesting method or technology on the horizon for condition monitoring?
Is anyone aware of some form of active equipment condition monitoring? I know of SEL relays which can measure the contact wear of a breaker, but not much else. Is there a device that actively measures the condition of a station transformer, for instance. I would assume pressure and temperature, sure, but any condition monitoring where some alarm could be triggered for either a more in depth condition assessment, or replacement.
I was reading some articles when generalized the subject. Some thoughts were, to focus on critical areas for rigorously, since lets say the loss of that feeder's equipment could leave thousands without power, or hospitals or something like that.
And that it is Condition that matters, not age. Just because something is old does not mean its in poor condition, and in fact actually proves that the Utility got their monies worth.
Is it possible to have a condition assessment program, active or not, that has false positives? I would assume this is always the case, and sometimes the Utility is replacing equipment that is still in fine condition.
Anyone on this forum actively part of a Utility program for monitoring their equipment for replacement? Any general comments on how well that works, what could be done better, etc? Is there some new, interesting method or technology on the horizon for condition monitoring?
Is anyone aware of some form of active equipment condition monitoring? I know of SEL relays which can measure the contact wear of a breaker, but not much else. Is there a device that actively measures the condition of a station transformer, for instance. I would assume pressure and temperature, sure, but any condition monitoring where some alarm could be triggered for either a more in depth condition assessment, or replacement.
I was reading some articles when generalized the subject. Some thoughts were, to focus on critical areas for rigorously, since lets say the loss of that feeder's equipment could leave thousands without power, or hospitals or something like that.
And that it is Condition that matters, not age. Just because something is old does not mean its in poor condition, and in fact actually proves that the Utility got their monies worth.
Is it possible to have a condition assessment program, active or not, that has false positives? I would assume this is always the case, and sometimes the Utility is replacing equipment that is still in fine condition.