Asset management challenges in ageing power systems

The power supply industry has been substantially deregulated from the late 1990´s. The resulting asset management processes focus on life cycle management of the power system equipment. A critical factor in this is understanding the ageing processes of the insulating materials, so key questions on the safe performance of the equipment can be answered and decisions made on the best option once safe performance is doubtful. This paper describes examples within a modern power utility where both aged materials and new materials in operating equipment present life cycle management challenges and one instance where a materials ageing issue has been unresolved over several decades. Accompanying these technical challenges are issues of how to manage the huge growth in condition monitoring data. The impact of these challenges and some ways to address them are described, focusing particularly on the insulating materials. Recent work within CIGRE is outlined, including a new methodology to better manage ageing and degraded insulation in an era of scarcer specialist skills.