Balancing Inspection Costs Against Failure Consequences Using Risk-Based Optimization Methods
This white paper presents a cost-optimization methodology for determining inspection intervals for transmission line wood pole structures. The approach balances three competing economic factors: inspection costs, planned replacement costs, and unplanned failure consequences—to identify the inspection frequency that minimizes total cost of ownership while maintaining acceptable reliability levels.
Rather than applying uniform inspection schedules across all structures, the methodology calculates individually tailored inspection intervals based on each structure’s age, probability of failure, and consequence of failure. Results typically range
from 6-month intervals for high-risk aged structures to 10-year intervals for low-risk newer assets, with most transmission lines optimizing between 1.5 and 4 years.
Implementation produces measurable cost savings by concentrating inspection resources on structures that provide the greatest risk-reduction value, while avoiding unnecessary inspections of assets with negligible near-term failure
probability.