Electricity + Control September 2018

PLANT MAINTENANCE, TEST + MEASUREMENT

Prevention and protection in plant maintenance

Joy Sonn and Manoj Chandrasekharan, Schneider Electric

Keeping electrical distribution equipment at optimum performance levels can be challenging and stressful. Why? Nothing operates without reliable power.

have preventive maintenance performed through a scheduled outage than to have emergency repair on electrical equipment. Enhance energy efficiency Research shows that regularly-maintained equip- ment is more energy efficient. Over time, normal wear and tear causes stress to components that can result in diminishing device energy efficien- cy. Less wear and tear on the equipment means less wasted energy while it is running. Preventive maintenance can be performed during off-peak business periods. Improve spare parts management Spare parts alone can add up to half of the total maintenance costs. Substituting preventive main- tenance for reactive maintenance helps to reduce the number of faults on complex parts and/or sys- tems. As a result, more money and time can be spent on improving your production process. Optimise total cost of ownership Plant managers want to keep their facility’s electri- cal distribution equipment running well for as long as possible, considering the significant costs of any new equipment acquisition (CapEx). Business operations must also be kept running as smoothly as possible at an optimum cost (OpEx). Without maintenance, the potential forunplanned down- time increases. Reactive (repair) situations can cause both spare parts and labor to be sold at a premium, in addition to the cost of lost productivity. Implementing an electrical preventive maintenance strategy mitigates the risk of unplanned (and costly) downtime. Know- ing when a scheduled shutdown will occur enables management to set staffing levels accordingly.

D eveloping a maintenance strategy for your electrical distribution system is a sound business decision and implementing an electrical preventive maintenance programme is a great starting point. Protect people and equipment Plant managers must ensure the sustainability of their businesses and with that, comes the re- sponsibility to evaluate and adopt all measures technically and economically available to minimise the risk of unwanted events. These events might cause loss of plant assets, but also place workers in danger. Electrical distribution equipment such as circuit breakers, fuse-contactors, etc., is designed to minimise the risk and severity of accidents or equipment breakdown. Therefore, the first priority of maintenance is to ensure this role is performed. Maximise your electrical equipment’s uptime A regularly-scheduled preventive maintenance pro- gramme lessens process disruptions and reduces stress on electrical equipment. It takes less time to

Take Note!

Plant managers must ensure the sustainability of their businesses. A regularly-scheduled preventive maintenance programme lessens pro- cess disruptions and re- duces stress on electrical equipment. Regularly-maintained equipment is more ener- gy efficient.

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32 Electricity + Control

SEPTEMBER 2018