Typical Economic Life Span of Major High Voltage Electrical Equipments

Date

High Voltage Electrical EquipmentsBased on Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM)’s more that 15 years of transmission asset valuations and detailed understanding of factors affecting the economic life of transmission assets in a number of countries worldwide, they have estimated the typical economic life span of major high voltage electrical equipment to fall within the following range*;

Transmission Lines
- Steel Tower: 55 - 60 years
- Steel Pole : 55 years
- Concrete Pole: 55 years
- Wood Pole: 45 years
Transmission Cables: 40 - 45 years
Substation Switch bays: 45-50 years
Substation Establishment: 50 - 60 years
Power Transformers: 45 - 50 years
Capacitors: 40 years
Circuit Breakers: 45 years
Current Transformers: 45 years
Voltage Transformers: 45 years
Control & Protection Schemes: 15 - 30 years
SCADA Systems: 15 years
Communications Equipment: 10 -12.5 years

However, it should be understood that this values are just typical and not generic since the actual economic life of specific equipment is affected by the following factors;
• design standards;
• construction standards;
• loading criteria;
• maintenance policies, procedure & practices;
• operating practices; and
• the general environment in which the assets are operated.

Probably, the equipment economic life estimated by SKM is based on industries with good engineering practices and have a typically good operating environment.

The economic service life is considered to be at an end when the capitalized value of future operating maintenance and failure costs exceed the replacement cost of the asset.


* National Transmission Corporation (Transco) Asset Revaluation Project report, July 2005, Philippines.




Category Filed in: Electric Transmission System, Power Plant Technology and Construction
Local date: February, 2012

  • The bread-and-butter account activity is advised to be at an end if the
    capitalized amount of approaching operating aliment and abortion costs
    beat the backup amount of the asset.
  • this is a very interesting topic.. this does however make you wonder that how fast you see technology advance so quickly and almost get replaced as soon as its come out.. if you were to replace it as fast as it was introduced as new! how much would it actually cost?!!
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