A novel method for optimal life cycle management scheme with Markov model

Maintenance of equipment of a power system can enhance the health condition and result in the improvement of reliability of a power system. However, maintenance introduces additional cost into the total operating cost. A sophisticated maintenance strategy should be a tradeoff between maintenance costs and reliability enhancement. This paper addresses the optimal maintenance scheme for transmission equipment over their life cycles. The whole life cycle is divided into several intervals. The health states over all intervals are modeled as a Markov chain. The transformation probability between the states at interconnected intervals will be determined with different maintenance strategies. The model for optimal maintenance strategy considering minor maintenance costs, major maintenance costs, repair costs and equivalent load losses costs. Equivalent load losses are determined by Monte Carlo method based OPF algorithm associated with stochastic loads. To find solution within reasonable computing time, a space reduction approach is proposed based on the characteristics of the Markov chain. A test system is used to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the method.