Maintenance is an inevitable course of action to improve the efficiency of equipment or system by ensuring that they are functioning at their maximum level. Preventive maintenance has a significant role in the proper function of the system. Circuit breakers, disconnect points, and switches can be tested for their proper performance, which is advocated to do every year. Metal-clad switchgear requires a periodic inspection to ensure its proper functioning. Generally, the first inspection should be performed between six months to a year after initial installation. An appropriate examination could be done to identify signs of deterioration, dust or cracks, etc.

• Performing preventive maintenance could help to make sure the potential safety issues and address before becoming risky.
• Switch gears are essential components in an electrical system. Failure of this could damage other equipment. Preventive maintenance help switch gears are serving reliably and minimize the risk of unexpected failure.
• Another factor is of cost saving, preventive maintenance help to recognize small issues becoming major which could reduce costly replacements and services.
• The longevity of the equipment could be increased by proper care, which could even downtime and substitution cost. Regular preventive maintenance can help to detect and face the issues that caused equipment failure that could extend the life of the machinery.

Best practices in preventive maintenance for your switchgear

• Appropriately segregate the switchgear

     The initial focus is to properly isolate so as to ensure more safety. Check whether the system has a single source, is double-ended, or features tiebreakers. Determining the back feed issues could be done next, ensuring the correct quantity of lockout tagout(LOTO)equipment, it is better to avoid the false assumption that your system is free of electrical energy.

• Environment of the equipment

                It is important to understand the environment of the equipment. Various types of polluting substances require different sorts of cleaning facilities which are vacuum filters, brushes, alcohol, etc. It is better to take advice from the manufacturer itself to get proper knowledge regarding the same.

• Employ appropriate procedure

      Having a proper procedure is always recommended that describes the necessary steps for servicing each type of equipment which includes load break switches, air circuit breakers, vacuum circuit breakers, and motor starters. Determine whether the equipment you possess needs a particular brand of lubricant as using the wrong product may nullify the warranty or could even lead to less efficiency than the manufacturer’s approved materials.

• Preventive maintenance strategy

     Establishing a proper timetable for how frequently you intend to perform preventive maintenance on your switchgear. Regular maintenance of your equipment on the basis of the prepared time intervals to mitigate the effect of contamination and wear could boost reliability and uptime while lowering the overall cost of ownership. Refer to the equipment’s instruction manuals to understand whether certain components have specific replacement schedules based on usage or year. This may pose a challenge for outdated equipment.

• Maintain and Analyze the test report

    In-depth reports for switchgear preventive maintenance are a crucial step in ensuring an effective pm plan. These can provide important data on identifying performance and future maintenance activities. Establishing clear goals and objectives for the pm plan will be the initial step towards this. Doing this will help in identifying whether the data collected is relevant and useful in achieving the goals. If the report contains recommendations for future maintenance and suggestions would be helpful for the work ahead.

Impacts of failure on switchgear power systems

The consequences can be severe if an event of malfunction occurs in the switchgear power system. There could happen potential damage to connected equipment along with this another risk is harm to individuals in the buildings or the surrounding areas based on the extent of the issue. This could even lead to downtime, production losses, and decreased productivity which could bring financial losses. Switchgear failures and the adjacent consequences can negatively affect the reputation of the organization directly and to decrease customer trust along with monetary depletion.