Risk Based Maintenance in Electricity Network Organisations

Abstract

Presently, maintenance management of assets in infrastructure utilities such as electricity, gas and water are widely undergoing changes towards new working environments. These are mainly driven against the background of stringent regulatory regimes, an ageing asset base, increased customer demands and constrained financial resources. Therefore, it becomes imperative for infrastructure utilities to strive towards more effective and efficient operation and maintenance approaches. In this light, new asset management approaches such as risk management are gaining more interest worldwide. In this research the focus has been on the framework for introducing modern maintenance management in electricity network organisations. It covers the development and practical application of enabling factors for maintenance management such as organisation capabilities, maturity models, structured and comprehensive frameworks for assessing risk based maintenance policies and decision-making tools and technologies. Thus, an integral, multi-disciplinary, approach towards maintenance management needs to be established, which is a challenge that has been taken up in this thesis for electricity network organisations.