Return on investment (ROI)

Added value from DayCor® corona inspection for electric utility predictive maintenance procedures

 

Cost-effectiveness of UV inspection predictive maintenance:

• Avoiding Outages: The cost of an outage of an overhead line is estimated to be of the order of one million dollars and more. Litigation costs are added on top of the direct costs. Prevention of one outage will cover the cost of many cameras.
• Avoiding failures of line and substation components: The cost of an unexpected failure on a key component can easily be US$50,000 to US$150,000.
• Routine washing of HV lines and substations is an expensive operation. By inspecting for corona, one can wash only polluted sites when and where it is needed. Optimizing the washing cycle of the line will save substantial amount of money to the utility
• Costs of consumers litigation about audio noise and Radio Interference (RI/ RFI/ EMI..) can amount to hundreds thousands dollars.
  

Predictive Vs. Preventive Maintenance:

By performing UV inspections the utility can shift from preventive maintenance at regular time intervals to predictive maintenance according to predictions based on the inspection results. Maintenance will be carried only when and where it is necessary.

Time Saving:

The UV inspection allows easy location of the corona and arcing sources. The maintenance teams avoid tedious search for the corona creating defects. These are immediately pinpointed by the camera operator. The saving is in time and manpower.

Avoiding outages due to pole fires:

Distribution companies using wooden poles can easily avoid pole fires by inspection of their lines with a corona camera for arcing on the first drizzling rain following a long dry period.