Operational Excellence Applied To High-Voltage Circuit Breaker Failures At ISA INTERCOLOMBIA

Management (1997), Lean Six Sigma (2008), and the Continuous Improvement Model (1998) have driven a cultural transformation in thinking. These approaches aim for incremental innovation projects, seeking to break the “islands” of analysis across the different stages of the asset life cycle (create, operate, maintain, and renew) and encourage teamwork through consultation and participation to generate action plans for various innovation ideas (proactive) or solutions to asset failures.

Thus, in the case of the “Maintain” stage of the life cycle, the continuous improvement process has been incorporated as a way of life toward operational excellence. As an example, this work presents the continuous improvement analysis to specifically address the recurring failure cause found in spring-operated dead-tank SF₆ circuit breakers at the San Carlos 230 kV substation.

This study demonstrates how it is possible to work collaboratively among the following areas:

Corporate Engineering (ISA), Operations Management (INTERCOLOMBIA), Northwestern

Transmission

Center

(INTERCOLOMBIA), and

Maintenance

Management

(INTERCOLOMBIA) in identifying a possible failure cause of the circuit breakers and defining an action plan that aligns with the company’s strategic objectives and business sustainability from environmental, social, and financial perspectives.