On the Remuneration to Electrical Utilities and Budgetary Allocation for Substation Maintenance Management

Abstract

The liberalization of electricity markets has produced a great change in electrical utilities. One of these changes has affected the methodology for setting their remuneration. Depending on the country, these are different. Despite the wide range of remuneration methodologies for the electricity market of each country, they all feature one common element: the remuneration of operation and maintenance. One of the messages that this remuneration transmits is the need to extend the useful life of the facilities to allow sustainable development. This article focuses on the remuneration schemes of electrical utilities, the classification of substations for the definition of their maintenance programs, and the budget allocation for the execution of maintenance in these critical infrastructures. The particularity of these facilities, in which it is generally necessary to de-energize some of their parts for maintenance, has also been taken into account. To this end, a simple methodology currently used is presented based on the standardization of the bays of the substations and their classification into levels of importance. This classification into levels enables the facilities to be grouped according to similarities in their maintenance plans, although they differ from each other in terms of the periodicity of the application of maintenance procedures. This methodology guarantees a similar distribution of maintenance activities and financial needs over the years. In addition, the methodology allows one to know the importance of each substation (since the greater the equivalent weight, the greater the importance). Finally, the application of the proposed methodology in a real case is presented. It shows the simplicity, effectiveness, and lamination of the budgetary allocation of the proposed methodology, this being the main contribution of the formulation.