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.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación PID2020-116433RB-I00Agencia Estatal de Investigación AEI/10.13039/5011000110
