Protection asset replacement-what business value?

This paper looks at what impact the protection refurbishment of a grid supply point has upon the business values of a typical distribution business. The paper sets out to demonstrate how the need to protect customers against risk exposure to the low probability, high consequence failures of the type seen in Auckland can provide a driver for capital investment in the duplicated distribution system. Use of risk based decision making is not confined to the capital investment process and a companion paper considers how to assess the optimum maintenance regimes for protection systems at all voltage levels