Aspects of how asset management can be influenced by modern condition monitoring and information management systems

Asset management for the purposes of this paper means the management of power system plant during its whole life i.e. from specification, manufacturing, commissioning, useful life, maintenance and then managing the consequences from the decision to refurbish or replace the item before final decommissioning and recycling any components. During its lifetime, the plant is subjected to a host of external factors: environmental conditions; system events; normal and abnormal loads; and even changes brought about for whatever reason to the “dielectric balance”. At several critical stages, information is required on the condition of the plant. The author describes how knowing what to measure, how to measure it, and then what to do with the information then becomes very important