Real-time life-cycle assessment of circuit breakers for maintenance using online condition monitoring data

Life-cycle assessment of power system circuit breakers (CB), if efficiently done, can well lead to an optimal decision on when, where, and how to perform maintenance activities. This paper elaborates a new approach on the identification of CB's deterioration/recovery states, i.e., the so called life-cycle assessment, using its control circuit condition monitoring data. Reliability-oriented performance indices, which can assess the condition of different physical parts of a CB in real time, are introduced first. Then, a quantitative methodology to define the probability of the CB falling into each class of deterioration/recovery states i.e., healthy, vulnerable, troubled, and failed is proposed. Using this approach, maintenance decisions can be more effectively made on different parts of a CB, the impact of maintenance can be well quantified, and system-wide maintenance optimization with respect to the condition-based differentiation of CBs all over the system can be made possible. Field CB condition data recorded at different time intervals during the operation of CB is utilized to evaluate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed approach.