Evaluating the availability of electrical substations: a dynamic methodology

This paper proposes a technique for evaluating the availability of substations and switching stations including the average cost of repairs of damaged equipment (corrective maintenance), the impact of disturbances on equipment availability and the impact of disturbances on the continuity of the service provided by the substation. The approach is based on the concept of disruptive events, sequence-based processes, state graphs and Markov techniques. The paper illustrates the technique by comparing the availability of two possible substation layouts. The results clearly show the benefit that can be obtained using this objective method of comparison.