Inner Mongolia Power Company’s Reliability-Centered Maintenance Innovation Powered by Hitachi Energy’s Asset Performance Management software

Inner Mongolia Power Company (IMPC), a major grid operator in China serving 14 million people across 720,000 square kilometers, faced significant challenges with aging infrastructure – an increasing number of its transmission transformers and switch equipment are more than 20 years old.

This aging grid infrastructure heightened the risk of breakdowns and outages which in turn could cause maintenance costs to increase. Older technologies also lacked the flexibility  needed to seamlessly integrate renewables. By September 2025, the installed capacity of renewable energy in the Inner Mongolia power grid had reached nearly 83 million kilowatts, accounting for more than a 50% year-on-year increase in the grid's total installed capacity. This placed high demands on both grid structural resilience and equipment maintenance. Limited maintenance resources also exacerbated the risk of unplanned outages. Existing condition-based monitoring approaches were hindered by low-quality data and infrequent testing, resulting in a low defect-detection rate and which left unaddressed could create  operational challenges.

In 2017, Hitachi Energy deployed Asset Performance Management (APM) software solutions for transformer maintenance projects with Inner Mongolia Power, bringing digital insight to enhance the reliable operation of the utility’s assets. These collaborations with Hitachi Energy have created a data platform for the company’s critical power assets and enabled predictive maintenance by collecting and analyzing advanced operational data.

IMPC then launched a pilot program in 2024 to apply reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) to its 220 kilovolt (kV) oil-immersed transformers. The initiative established a dynamic reliability assessment model and maintenance strategy standard for 20 transformers, enabling real-time analysis of operational reliability risks. Maintenance scenarios were tailored to dynamic risk levels, and cost and risk simulations were conducted under differentiated strategies.

This project is a pioneering example of RCM for 20/220kV transformers and marks one of the first applications of Hitachi Energy’s APM Reliability module to grid assets in China. It shifted the company’s reliability management focus from asset availability to operational risk, established a new failure-code library leveraging 20 years of Hitachi Energy’s historical data, combining IMPC’s own equipment failure records, reliability data, application scenarios, and integrated IoT technology for real-time data transmission from substation sensors.

Qualitative outcomes include improved transformer availability, reduced unnecessary maintenance, and lower operational risk and outage duration. A differentiated maintenance strategy library and improved reliability standards were developed, and the company began transitioning from state-based to reliability-centered maintenance. Quantitatively, the pilot projected a 41.5 percent reduction in maintenance workload, a 37.9 percent decrease in maintenance costs, and a 50 percent reduction in outage frequency for the pilot transformers compared to those under condition-based maintenance (CBM).

The project is based on the features of IMPC's power grid system and the application scenario of high-penetration renewable energy integration, leveraging advanced grid technology, IoT, data analytics, and software solutions, and is considered a net new capability for the organization. Its impact spans operational efficiency, risk management, financial outcomes, and sustainability, positioning Inner Mongolia Power Company as a leader in grid modernization and reliability management.

“The award-winning RCM project marks not only a technological breakthrough, but also a pivotal shift in maintenance strategy. IMPC’s pioneering efforts have validated the reliability-centered, intelligent maintenance model as both replicable and highly effective for large-scale regional grids,” said James Zhao, Executive Vice President and Region head of Greater China, Hitachi Energy. “We look forward to further collaborating with customers and partners, leveraging digital solutions like APM, to drive data-informed decisions, enhance asset availability and reliability, and advance power grid modernization in China and beyond.”

Launched in 2023, the APM Reliability module uses data from production management, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and condition monitoring systems to dynamically assess risks using a reliability model in the system. In addition, the module simulates risks of adopting various maintenance strategies for the next 5-10 years and conducts comparative analyses. These allow engineers to drive risk-based, reliability-centered maintenance and prioritize maintenance spend.