A Systematic Look at the Application of RCM Method to Lines Distance Protection System

Distance protection system as the main lines’ protection, has an essential role in networks’ reliability. Thus an optimized maintenance plan for distance protection can influence on network reliability and costs. Intrinsic hidden function of the protection systems cause some problem in the way of applying reliability-centered maintenance technique (RCM) as an effective planning method. In this study, the concept of systematic solution view in RCM is proposed instead of equipment-based solution view. The presented concept can well model the behavior of a hidden performance system. Also, Markov process and krill optimization algorithm is used for calculating the reliability and finding optimal time intervals between maintenance tasks. Increasing system reliability and decreasing costs are considered as optimization aims. The proposed method has been implemented and tested using real data of two distance protection systems. The output results show that the proposed method is capable of providing higher reliability and lower cost than other methods.