April 24, 2025 – As electrical systems age, facility managers face ongoing decisions that have cost implications upfront, but also for many years to come. They rely on their electrical contractors for solid recommendations about what’s best for their switchgear infrastructure—whether that’s replacement versus a full/partial retrofit—and then to carry the work out accordingly.

But how do contractors arrive at those recommendations, and what industry best practices should be used to help optimize their clients’ aging switchgear systems?

To get us started, John Hodson, former owner of the MagnaIV Calgary office and current owner of Surplus High Voltage Assets in Calgary, first points to some general points about the infrastructure itself.

“A lot of switchgear housing is still good after 20 or 30 or even 50 years but, of course, the switching technology has evolved,” he says. “The housing is about 50% of the cost, so it’s cost-effective and also better for the environment to keep it in place instead of ripping out everything… which usually ends up at scrap dealers.”

“With the increasing cost of mining raw materials like copper and aluminum, and also the tariff situation, it’s best to keep the housing as long as possible and change the components.”

Allen Tressel, electrical department manager and co-founder of Team Power Solutions in Saskatoon, Sask., is of the same mind. “In Saskatchewan and other parts of Canada, the switchgear structural housing built years ago was generally built much heavier that what we see in optimized designs today,” he says, “and a lot of it just needs a clean up and a rebuild.”

That leaves optimizing the performance of the components inside. Here are the best practices these and other experts recommend.

Best practice #1 – Taking a thorough look

Sandra Pedro, utilities director at ABB, explains that recommendations about aging electrical infrastructure should be preceded by detailed site studies, including fault current studies.

“Since electrical systems evolve over time, referencing the old study or just the nameplate of the equipment does not provide the most current requirements,” she explains. “By assessing the system’s current demand profiles, contractors can implement targeted retrofits that modernize aging switchgear and ensure that systems meet modern performance and sustainability standards.”

Courtney Forget, vice-president of services for Schneider Electric Canada, also recommends an initial comprehensive assessment. “Regular inspections and testing are essential to uncover hidden issues and understand the life cycle.”

Best practice #2 – Building trust through explanation

Once a thorough analysis is complete, Tressel points to the need to provide clear explanations of your recommendations for either the retrofit or replacement of components, with the needs of the customer coming above all.

“It might be that new components are best, or sometimes it’s a rebuild,” he says. “It’s not always about what has the quickest return on investment. You want to work with customers as a trusted partner to help them make the best decisions for their unique situation and considering all aspects of their operation—including the cost of downtime. You want to communicate well and create a good long-term relationship, supporting a solid plan.”

In a replacement recommendation, for example, contractors should explain that some older equipment is not worth keeping simply because the parts just aren’t available anymore.

“It’s an easy decision to replace if there’s something uncommon, but there are a lot of grey area situations,” says Tressel. “It’s a case-by-case basis and you have to do your research. At some point, the component crosses that threshold and it’s more expensive to maintain it than to replace it, as parts get more scarce and more costly.”

This often happens with certain breaker parts, Tressel continues. He’s been on projects where he was surprised to find “old stuff” was actually still available, usually because it is really popular and still supported. Conversely, “There can be newer stuff from 10 years ago that wasn’t common and isn’t supported anymore”.

“Overall, for whatever reason, if it’s a long delivery time and costly to get the part, then you may lean toward replacement versus retrofit.”

Best practice #3 – Introducing new technologies when appropriate

When replacement is the best option, electrical contractors should introduce new technologies that promise clear advantages in reducing future maintenance requirements.

Pedro highlights modular switchgear, for example, which “futureproofs” a site by reducing outages and minimizing the need for full replacement or repairs down the road. Instead of the oil or SF6 gas that’s present in traditional switchgear, modular products featuring vacuum interruption and solid dielectric insulation can reduce many maintenance requirements.

Forget points to connectable digital breakers that not only enhance reliability and safety (e.g. with arc flash detection systems), but also enable condition-based maintenance, reducing the need for frequent interventions. In addition, transitioning from electromechanical to digital relays provides advanced protection and diagnostics.

“This upgrade offers superior fault protection and seamless integration with modern control systems,” Forget says.

At the same time, Tressel explains that clients usually have a goal of maintaining consistency with equipment to save costs. “If you have two or even five different vintages, it’s tough for operators as they have to learn how to operate and maintain all of them,” he says.

“On the other hand, if you keep new components similar, you have less training, efficient maintenance, and you can continue to use your standard stock spare parts. Also, if you maintain the original specifications with rebuilds, you don’t have to do design changes, so you avoid or reduce those engineering and construction costs.”

Best practice #4 – Regular, proper maintenance

As you recommend and carry out component replacement or retrofit, another best practice is to encourage the performance of proper regular maintenance to help clients optimize their infrastructure over the long term.

In Hodson’s experience, about 25 years is a component’s typical life span under reasonable maintenance but, as is the case with just about any asset, a stricter maintenance regime can extend that life.

“Some utilities let things run to failure and swap out switchgear quickly,” he observes. “They have spares for everything and are regulated separately. Industrial and commercial operations should also have spares on hand, but they don’t want to run to failure, so maintenance is critical. If you let things run to failure, it could be months before you’re back up.”

In his view, everyone in the industry should be following InterNational Electrical Testing Association (NETA) standards for electrical power equipment maintenance, similar to CSA Z463 “Maintenance of electrical systems”.

“You [should also] use this as maintenance guidelines when you bring in an engineering consultant or testing firm, instead of just bringing a company in for wide-open maintenance testing,” he explains.

Forget adds that new sensor technologies open the door to advanced preventive or predictive management. Furthermore, “adopting condition-based maintenance service plans can lead to savings on insurance premiums”.

And while the maintenance discussion is happening, don’t forget to include lubrication. While it may seem to clients to be a good way to extend the life of components, clients aren’t generally aware that lubrication must be done carefully. Improper lubrication and resulting operational failure can lead to costly downtime and repairs, and Tressel encourages everyone in the industry to remind clients about this whenever possible.

“When we do a minor rebuild, we always educate the client that we have to partially disassemble just to clean and remove the old lubrication,” he says, “which must be done before installing new lubrication.”

Best practice #5 – Encouraging environmental analysis

Tressel would like to see the industry adopt a best practice of urging clients in appropriate situations to examine environmental hygiene as an important way to extend switchgear lifespan.

“If you can install a HVAC system and/or maintain a positive pressure in the room to reduce dust and other contaminants, you’ll keep your switchgear infrastructure in much better shape,” he asserts. “Yes, there’s a cost to these HVAC systems in the install and ongoing maintenance, but that’s worth it to increase reliability, safety, and production.”

“There could be a lot of contaminants in the environment but, because electrical equipment doesn’t move or make noise, it’s typically ignored,” Tressel adds. “However, you can be assured, in a dirty operating environment, it is building up issues in silence.”

Best practice #6 – Encouraging good record-keeping

As time passes, there are always staff changes. Ongoing retirements and the loss of institutional knowledge can raise the equipment’s operating risk, and create significant barriers to achieving longer switchgear life, says Tressel.

“In many cases, there isn’t a long-term history with equipment that’s established, so companies don’t have maintenance history records. Better record-keeping means better care. If records management is improved—leading to more accessible historical data—repeat issues, deficiencies, and general maintenance will be better and components can last much longer,” he notes.

The best perspective moving forward

Overall, Tressel stresses that educating clients about maintenance is the best way for you to work together to optimize switchgear operation through ongoing combinations of component service, retrofit, and replacement. He also recommends encouraging a proactive stance.

“Emergency or reactive situations are not ideal for anyone,” he says. “With advanced planning, service-based knowledge and working together as trusted partners, the best contractors help their customers solve the challenges ahead, plan for the best business decisions, and optimize their uptime and operating efficiency.”

By providing expert support for customers’ unique concerns and, ultimately, implementing the best solutions, our industry can do a lot to help clients manage their switchgear future in the most logical and cost-effective ways.”

Treena Hein is an award-winning Canadian science, technology and industry business trends writer, and regularly contributes to Electrical Business Magazine.

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