Optimizing Distribution Systems In Asset Management

Philipp Caspar Koch is making the attempt to outline with a model-shaping intent the way in which a deliberate choice and design of varying “institutional arrangements" is likely to operate as a device for optimizing net inflows from private investors.

It is critical to improve the asset management system implementation as well as economics and industrial decision making to ensure that a business may move smoothly internally. Maintenance management should be aligned to the activities of maintenance in accordance with key business strategies, which must be designed under the comprehensive approach of an asset management process. After transforming the priorities of the business into priorities of maintenance, maintenance managers will use their medium-team strategies to tackle potential weaknesses in the maintenance of the equipment in accordance with these objectives. Cases on Optimizing the Asset Management Process explains and summarizes the processes and the reference frame necessary for the implementation of the Maintenance Management Model (MMM). This book acts as an overview of the current state of the art in asset management, providing innovative tools and practices from the fourth industrial revolution. Presenting topics like criticality analysis, physical asset maintenance, and unified modelling language, this text is essential for industrial and manufacturing engineers, plant supervisors, academicians, researchers, advanced-level students, technology developers, and managers who make decisions in this field.

Infrastructure Asset Management with Power System Applications is about infrastructure asset management, which can be expressed as the combination of management, financial, economic, and engineering, applied to physical assets with the objective of providing the required level of service in the most cost-effective manner. It includes management of the whole lifecycle of a physical asset from design, construction, commission, operation, maintenance, modification, decommissioning, and disposal. It covers budget issues and focuses on asset management of an infrastructure for energy—i.e., the electric power system. Features Offers a comprehensive reference book providing definitions, terminology, and basic theories as well as a comprehensive set of examples from a wide range of applications for the electric power system and its components. Spans a wide range of applications for the electric power system area, including real data and pictures. Contains results from recently published research and application studies. Includes a wide range of application examples for the electric power systems area from hydro, nuclear, and wind, plus shows future trends. Contributes to the overall goals of developing a sustainable energy system by providing methods and tools for a resource efficient use of physical assets in the electric power system area.

Pipe failures in water distribution systems can have a serious impact and hence it’s important to maintain the condition and integrity of the distribution system. This book presents a whole-life cost optimisation model for the rehabilitation of water distribution systems. It combines a pipe breakage number prediction model with a pipe criticality assessment model, which enables the creation of a well-constructed and more tightly constrained optimisation model. The pipe breakage number prediction model combines information on the physical characteristics of the pipes with historical information on breakage and failure rates. A weighted multiple nonlinear regression analysis is applied to describe the condition of different pipe groups. The criticality assessment model combines a pipe’s condition with its hydraulic significance through a modified TOPSIS. This model enables the optimisation to focus its efforts on those important pipes. The whole life cost optimal rehabilitation model is a multiple-objective and multiple-stage model, which provides a suite of rehabilitation decisions that minimise the whole life cost while maximising its long-term performance. The optimisation model is solved using a modified NSGA-II. The utility of the developed models is that it allows decision makers to prioritize their rehabilitation strategy in a proactive and cost-effective manner.

We are becoming more and more dependent on reliable distribution of electricity. The demand for cost efficiency has at the same time increased since new incentives have appeared. This book presents methods for finding a balance between the aims of high reliability and cost effectiveness. A key aspect is to evaluate the impacts of outages and the benefits of risk reducing investments. Put in a wider context, this is asset management, which can be summarized as the art of finding a balance between risk, cost and performance. This book is built on the experience of a wide number of case studies of different reliability projects and is focused on applicable tools for the reader. Basically the book gathers the most important parts of the asset management process into one place.

Deregulation has brought about sea changes in the way power systems are designed and operated. Conventionally, distribution system assets have been maintained using methods that had little or no room for judgment based on failure phenomena of equipment. Various rules of thumb and fixed budgetary allocations have led to inefficient use of available resources resulting in lower levels of reliability and higher prices for customers. The advent of deregulation has however influenced the way the various distribution system assets are maintained. Asset management has particularly been an area of active research to allow utilities optimize performance and achieve the best outcome for every dollar invested. The question then becomes where and when to invest the next dollar to achieve maximum benefit and how to quantify the benefits of maintenance. The thesis proposes a risk-based approach to facilitate the allocation of available resources to maintaining various distribution system assets. The proposed method advances the current state of the art in distribution system maintenance in that, it allocates maintenance resources for different equipment based on their probability and consequence of failure. A predictive reliability assessment tool that computes the effects of outages on various reliability metrics is developed. The tool can be used to compute the reliability indices of the system along with their sensitivities to maintenance of different distribution system assets. Combined with an optimizer, the reliability evaluation tool can be used by asset managers to assign resources to various maintenance projects and prioritize them based on the benefits obtained in terms improvement in reliability metrics.

This book discusses inventory models for determining optimal ordering policies using various optimization techniques, genetic algorithms, and data mining concepts. It also provides sensitivity analyses for the models’ robustness. It presents a collection of mathematical models that deal with real industry scenarios. All mathematical model solutions are provided with the help of various optimization techniques to determine optimal ordering policy. The book offers a range of perspectives on the implementation of optimization techniques, inflation, trade credit financing, fuzzy systems, human error, learning in production, inspection, green supply chains, closed supply chains, reworks, game theory approaches, genetic algorithms, and data mining, as well as research on big data applications for inventory management and control. Starting from deterministic inventory models, the book moves towards advanced inventory models. The content is divided into eight major sections: inventory control and management – inventory models with trade credit financing for imperfect quality items; environmental impact on ordering policies; impact of learning on the supply chain models; EOQ models considering warehousing; optimal ordering policies with data mining and PSO techniques; supply chain models in fuzzy environments; optimal production models for multi-items and multi-retailers; and a marketing model to understand buying behaviour. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for practitioners, instructors, students and researchers alike. It also offers essential insights to help retailers/managers improve business functions and make more accurate and realistic decisions.

This book focuses on all major aspects of the asset management industry including its regulations, strategies, processes, applied technologies and risks. It provides a serious resource for readers seeking greater depth and alternative opinions on specific industry developments, and breadth for specialists interested in the dynamics of the industry.

Water and Wastewater companies operating all around the world have faced rising asset management and replacement costs, often to levels that are financially unsustainable. Management of investment needs, while meeting regulatory and other goals, has required: A better understanding of what customers demand from the services they pay for, and the extent to which they are willing to pay for improvements or be compensated for a reduction in performance Development of models to predict asset failure and to identify and concentrate investment on critical assets Improved management systems Improved accounting for costs and benefits and their incorporation within an appropriate cost-benefit framework Incorporation of risk management techniques Utilisation of advanced maintenance techniques including new rehabilitation failure detection technologies Enhancements in pipeline materials, technologies and laying techniques. These papers developed from LESAM 2007 for inclusion in Strategic Asset Management of Water Supply and Wastewater Infrastructures are focused on the techniques, technologies and management approaches aiming at optimising the investment in infrastructure while achieving demanded customer service standards, and they provide an opportunity to gain access to the latest discussion and developments at the leading-edge in this field. This book will be essential reading for utility operators and managers, regulators and consultants.

This timely book deals with a current topic, i.e. the applications of metaheuristic algorithms, with a primary focus on optimization problems in civil engineering. The first chapter offers a concise overview of different kinds of metaheuristic algorithms, explaining their advantages in solving complex engineering problems that cannot be effectively tackled by traditional methods, and citing the most important works for further reading. The remaining chapters report on advanced studies on the applications of certain metaheuristic algorithms to specific engineering problems. Genetic algorithm, bat algorithm, cuckoo search, harmony search and simulated annealing are just some of the methods presented and discussed step by step in real-application contexts, in which they are often used in combination with each other. Thanks to its synthetic yet meticulous and practice-oriented approach, the book is a perfect guide for graduate students, researchers and professionals willing to applying metaheuristic algorithms in civil engineering and other related engineering fields, such as mechanical, transport and geotechnical engineering. It is also a valuable aid for both lectures and advanced engineering students.