Intelligent Design

THIS ARTICLE EXPLORES A NONTRADITIONAL approach to asset management in which operational and nonoperational data captured during power system events like faults and other disturbances are utilized for condition-based assessment of power system assets such as transmission lines, circuit breakers, and transformers. As an example, during faults on transmission lines, determining the location of the fault and the condition of circuit breakers is critical to managing transmission line repair and restoration. To manage the assets in this case, it is necessary to obtain field-recorded data from substation intelligent electronic devices (IEDs). Substation IED data may be combined with the traditional (historical) asset management data to draw immediate conclusions about the asset´s condition and its availability for continued use after it has been stressed due to a random event. The topic of the use of condition-based data to enhance asset management opportunities is a complex one that requires an explanation of how condition-based data may be converted to information leading to knowledge useful for decision making. In this article, we explore the implementation issues of such a concept, leaving it to the reader to become familiar with the fundamental issues of the use of condition-based data in asset management through literature offered for further reading.