Thesis

Using multi-criteria decision analysis to assess the health of high volume, low cost power network assets

Creator
Rights statement
Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2022
Thesis identifier
  • T16302
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 201268317
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • When power system assets come toward to the end of their lives, actions to maximize their utilisation and extend the lifetime of the assets to limit the capital and operational expenditure are required. The health profile of the assets can be an indicator of whether an asset requires replacement or refurbishment. To obtain the health profile of high volume, low cost assets, such as wood poles, whose maintenance strategies are predominantly age based, and at the same time, without enough historical and monitoring data provided to monitor the asset condition, this thesis developed an adaptable approach using an improved- Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Swing Weight (SW) to elicit individual expert judgments on different age/condition criteria which contribute to the overall asset health. The individual expert judgments are then processed using Delphi method or Logarithmic Pooling Method to derive a synthesised result, which is a score for an asset’s health to inform such replacement decisions. The results show that the health assessment derived from a combination of age and condition altered the replacement and refurbishment maintenance strategy compared to an age-based only approach. The introduction of ‘condition’ in the health assessment (in addition to ‘age’) is to ensure the replacement of relatively ‘young’ assets (with a relatively shorter service length) in poor condition (deterioration occurred) and avoid the replacement of ‘older’ assets (with a relatively longer service length) which are actually in a good condition (serviceable condition), resulting in inefficient targeting of asset investment. Younger assets, at an age of 9, are required to be replaced after introducing age and condition while only assets above the age of 54 were required to be replaced with age based only approach. The thesis presents the methodology developed for and applied to wood poles as one more generally suitable for high volume, low cost assets without enough historical and monitoring data provided to monitor the asset condition; where the health of the assets can be assessed by introducing condition criteria into the assessment approach. It uses multiple experts’ judgments derived by AHP/SW along with Delphi/Logarithmic Pooling Method to maximize the utilisation and extend the lifetime of the assets and consequently limit the capital and operational expenditure associated with asset replacement and refurbishment.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Strachan, Scott
Resource Type
DOI

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