Probabilistic planning of overhead line support maintenance

At many network operators, a quite substantial amount of money is flowing into the maintenance of overhead line supports. This maintenance is carried out in order to avoid more expensive maintenance in the future as well as to reduce the risk of a tower fall or collapse due to deterioration of a tower´s structure. The paper focuses on the conservation of steel towers, but the proposed methods and practices may with little modification be applicable to wood and concrete supports as well. The approach to condition based tower painting adopted by Essent Netwerk B.V. is described and a probabilistic maintenance planning approach is discussed.