ABSTRACT
An aging infrastructure will have a detrimental effect on a utility’s customer service reliability. Gradually, as equipment deteriorates and equipment failure rates increase, the rate of service interruptions will begin to increase. All measures of customer service reliability – SAIFI, SAIDI, MAIFI and others, will inevitably worsen. An old, partially worn-out power system is inherently less reliable, in terms of customer service quality, than a new one. It is not possible to add enough Smart equipment and “self healing capability,” enough automated switching, and enough fault location and diagnostic equipment to guarantee this escalation in service interruptions and SAIDI and SAIFI problems can be completely controlled. A utility cannot “fix” the reliability problems created by aging by focusing only on technology alone.
