The economic case for reliability centred maintenance in the UK-a pilot study

The management and maintenance of the UK electricity distribution system poses an increasing problem for asset and maintenance managers as the fiscal and regulatory pressures on them increase. An ageing wood pole and hardware plant, combined with increasingly tight budgetary requirements, necessitates management programs aimed at extending the useful life of overhead facilities, whilst providing safe, reliable service. This paper describes how one solution to this problem is to apply cost-effective reliability centred maintenance (RCM) programs which provide quantifiable data on asset condition by which to render appropriate judgements on preventative and corrective maintenance activities.