An integrated approach to reliability assessment, maintenance and life cycle costs in the National Grid Company

The National Grid Company (NGC) owns and operates the high voltage (400 and 275 kV) transmission system in England and Wales. Among the conditions for the successful application of technology in a modern organisation are the following: sensitivity to trends in the total business environment; commitment to change and the contribution of technology; close cross-functional integration; and, a focus on customer needs. It follows that the contribution that technology can make should be considered to be at least as important as the other more traditional areas of business management. For NGC, these considerations present a significant challenge. It is necessary to ensure that the maintenance and asset replacement strategies developed are based on a thorough understanding of the behaviour and performance of the plant involved. This paper describes some of the techniques that are being used within NGC to meet this challenge