Can we delay the replacement of this component?-an asset management approach to the question [for electric utilities]

Asset management is emerging as a new approach on how to exploit an electric utility physical asset in the most profitable way. One of the major questions to answer by the asset management staff is when to do replacements? This is a difficult question, which require weighting of several parameters of totally different nature-e.g. reliability data, operating cost and condition information. This paper presents an asset management approach which answer the question "When to replace a component?" The presented model address the problem in direct economic terms, and the model is capable of evaluating consequences of replacing today or later, so the most cost-efficient solutions can be reached. A software system, VefoNet, has been developed in a common Nordic project. The system includes the described model as well as other asset management models. The system also includes a data collection system based on Windows CE handheld computers which are presented in this paper. The calculations shown in the paper are based on this tool, and the software system is today available and used by Danish electric utilities.