Abstract
This paper develops an application of the Markov and Weibull—Markov methods to evaluate the effects of maintenance actions on the availability and reliability of electrical distribution systems. It unifies existing models and critically reviews them on their applicability to electrical components. Both methods are applied to investigate the expected performances of underground and overhead circuits. It compares expected performance in terms of failure rates, outage times, and availability. Based an a threshold reliability value and maximum benefit, specific preventive maintenance actions are defined for reliability improvement for each component and therefore for the system. The results obtained by the Weibull—Markov method would seem to be more realistic. A range of recommendations is formulated for practical considerations which may be of interest to operators, as well as to managers of these systems.
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