An Investigation into the Effect of aging components on the Medium Voltage network configurations in the Semi-Urban Areas

Access to electricity for all South Africans is a goal that is still achievable; it is not a luxury to have access to electricity but a need for every individual. Electricity improves our way of life, even for people who are living in the Townships. Most of the medium voltage electrical networks supplying the Semi-Urban areas/Townships are more than 30 years, and some of them have reached the end of life. The existing electrical network configurations can cause accelerated ageing of the electrical components which can have a negative impact on performance, quality of supply and safety of members of the public. The aim of this paper is to discuss the effects of the environment on the medium voltage components on the electrical network which might affect safety, Quality of supply and performance of the networks in Semi-Urban areas. Ageing of components on the electrical network can result in a capital loss, loss of life and high supply interruptions which will also result in loss of revenue for the power utility. Three Semi-Urban areas located in different parts of Northern Cape will be selected for the investigation. Visual inspection and components failure rate will be used during the investigation to understand the details of the selected networks and their ageing characteristics. Components on the electrical networks selected for the research have different deterioration characteristics based on their environment and design of electrical network configuration. Safe, reliable and correctly design electrical networks in Semi-Urban Townships can improve the performance, quality of supply and reduce maintenance cost of the network. Northern Cape has one of the largest landscape in South Africa, which makes the distribution networks to be much longer than normal and takes more time to inspect that any other province in South Africa.