Level of infrastructure maintenance management in utilities of the Southern African Power Pool

Abstract

Utilities of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) are confronted with aging generation and transmission assets. There is also a growing demand for electricity in most Southern African countries due to economic growth and construction of new assets is needed to cope with this demand. If maintenance on generation and network assets is neglected, business performance will not be achieved and lower availability and frequent trips will be experienced. Using concepts, frameworks and models described in literature, a framework for maintenance management was developed and tested in SAPP utilities by means of a survey. The survey revealed that all SAPP maintenance management strategies in place. The survey also indicated that shortfalls in specific aspects of maintenance management exist in some of the utilities of the SAPP. The paper recommends that the proposed infrastructure maintenance management framework be adopted and implemented by SAPP utilities to achieve a stable and interconnected electrical network and achieve the desired objective of maintenance management.