Focus on Coal
ability to meet this challenge is often made more trying because of aging equipment and the ongoing loss of their most experienced personnel. For new plants, profitability hinges on the implementation of information sharing technologies that make it possible to keep manpower at a minimum without added risk to plant assets or personnel. Ultimately, to meet the rising demand for power
while remaining profitable, coal fired power facilities need to exploit every opportunity for greater machine reliability and process efficiency. Tis need to maintain productivity and profitability means that operating equipment, from turbines and generating sets to coal yard conveyors and handling systems, have to work under typically extreme conditions and to do so reliably for long periods with minimal maintenance. In addition, components are often subject to heavy loads and high temperatures, abrasive dust, dirt and moisture. Effective plant maintenance is, therefore, one of
the areas that must be addressed in order to increase production, reduce downtime, extend machine life, improve the performance of critical equipment, enhance safety and lower operating costs. At one time, it was common practice to wait for equipment to fail before repairs were carried out. However, decision makers within the coal fired power sector quickly came to realise that in order to guarantee continuous production and prevent any disruption to supply, an alternative, more efficient approach was needed.
Ten came preventative and predictive maintenance
programmes, which were used to identify and to some extent prevent imminent failures in order to enable smoother operation and help avoid any major economic and environmental repercussions. Tis shift in thinking spawned a new generation of diagnostic tools and software, such as integrated and intelligent vibration and thermal sensors and accelerometers, designed to allow plant engineers to forward plan shutdown and repair. However, although predictive maintenance is now a common strategy it remains largely a reactive process that, in today’s highly competitive global economy, adds little to a company’s bottom line. Ultimately, what is needed is a holistic approach that optimises the efficiency of plant and equipment, by proactively managing both system reliability and risk assessment across an entire organisation. One emerging strategy is known as asset efficiency optimisation (AEO), which has been developed as a tool to improve plant productivity and thus profitability. In practice, this approach is proving to be highly effective. For example, one utility that adopted an AEO strategy, in place of periodical maintenance or fixed interval maintenance, was able to realise a reduction in forced outage rates by 30 per cent, with a 7 per cent increase in peak period availability. Essentially, AEO creates a dynamic programme that combines the advantages of traditional techniques with
procedures that identify the root causes of machine and process problems, and empower front line operators to own their machinery, identifying and communicating information to a plant wide team to maximise uptime. However, for any integrated reliability and risk based asset management strategy to be effective, thorough planning prior to its implementation is vital. Te first step in developing the programme is typically a detailed client needs analysis (CNA), where maintenance managers and engineers ask key staff the right questions to gain a snapshot of the current maintenance strategy and its efficiency in order to draw useful and accurate conclusions that can be built upon. Te CNA process uses a sequence of assessment questions from each of the four main facets of the AEO process to focus on improving processes, culture and technology.
Using the information gathered from the CNA, a detailed roadmap can then be established in order to achieve optimum performance from the maintenance department. Tis information will help to identify and target necessary and viable areas for improvement that can be worked on under the four elements of an AEO programme: maintenance strategy, work identification, work control and work execution. Maintenance strategy is the stage at which a business sets out its larger goals and objectives, assesses plant criticality and risk, and decides what the most important issues and priorities are. Tis forms the foundations for a suitable and effective maintenance plan to be created, and sets in place a recognised and auditable company asset management strategy, which can be easily communicated throughout the organisation.
Tis information is then used in the second
stage, work identification, where critical plant data is gathered and analysed, allowing informed decisions to be made and the corrective maintenance operations
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Fig. 2. Asset efficiency optimisation, which has been developed as a tool to improve plant productivity and thus profitability.
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