CONDITION ASSESSMENT OF DISTRIBUTION GRIDS USING UNCERTAINTY THEORY

The basis of all optimized maintenance strategies, which are also widely adopted on the distribution system level, is the most objective and realistic condition assessment of the various electrical grid components. In this paper a simple, cost-efficient but reliable method for systematic condition assessment of medium-voltage substations is presented. It is based on periodic visual inspections. However, visual inspections are subject to personal influence and therefore the method is supplemented by suitable simple measurement methods. These different information sources are combined to an overall statement. To represent the subjective influence and the credibility of the sources this paper will describe the theoretical foundations of the theory of evidence and the systematic adaption to the condition assessment. Therefore, the paper focuses on the first practical experiences of field tests to determine the subjective influence and the first application of this new developed methodology in practice. As a conclusion a significant and realistic condition assessment is achieved by taking the significance and subjectivity into account. The influence of individual experiences must be kept in mind.