M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / The turbo-generator unit is very important equipment for electric power production, which has a high rate of failure. As the capacity increases, condition monitoring and fault diagnostic play a crucial role to guarantee safe operation and cost efficiency. The Eskom generator fleet is fast approaching the end of the original designed life. Also in view of the recent constrained reserve margin, outage downtime, maintenance costs, resource management, and maintenance inherent problems, a systematic approach is required to optimise scheduled time-based maintenance to improve reliability and availability. The subject of turbo machine condition monitoring requires the development of new technologies to diagnose the turbo-generator problems. Condition is an underlying factor in the performance of machines. It is also an important predictor of future performance that the machine is in a good condition and will be reliable and perform better. It provides a reference for maintenance engineers on the current condition of the turbo-generator. Trends in condition monitoring can be used to determine whether turbo-generators are being maintained and that are meeting their expected service lives or whether their performance is deterioration faster than expected. In the industry, traditional maintenance philosophies have taken two approaches; the first approach is to perform fixed time interval maintenance, where the system engineers take advantage of relaxed production cycles to fully inspect all aspects of the turbo-generator. The second route is for engineers to simply react to the generator failure as and when it happens. All too many utilities operate largely in the reactive run-to-failure mode. The old phrase, “if it aren’t broken don’t fix” is perennial run to failure argument. Nonetheless, making use of today’s technology, a new scientific methodology is becoming popular to maintenance management. For the purpose of investigating the management of condition-based monitoring and diagnostic technology to optimise timed-based maintenance of large turbo-generators, Eskom Units installed with condition monitoring techniques were considered. The minidissertation culminated in the compilation of case histories based on Eskom turbo-generator fleet where the technology is being rolled out. The literature survey looked at current industry practices in areas such as total productive maintenance (TPM), technology management and support systems, return on investment (ROI) and maintenance management to compare what Eskom is doing to what in others in the field are doing. There is no research work currently that has been done that links maintenance to maintenance technology deployment enablers. The research incorporates a number of operational experiences where some Eskom turbo-generator units continue to operate with a known fault. Regular maintenance interventions introduce faults into the machine due to human error, the opening of units and the handling of components. Attention is given to the impact of two-shifting or cyclic operation on turbo-generators that were originally designed for base load condition. The time–based maintenance of these units is not taking advantage of condition monitoring information. Also, the installed condition monitoring techniques fall short of addressing twoshifting monitoring requirements. A number of lessons were learnt from the implementation of the condition-based maintenance technology on Eskom generator fleet. The theory of maintenance management underscores establishment of a good relationship between system engineers, maintenance personnel and the technology provider which is key to success of the technology. It further indicates that this relationship must go deeper than the mere technology provider and the end user of the technology service agreement. The maintenance engineers are taking key business decision for the well-being of machines and maintenance technology needs to demonstrate that it is creating value for the business. From the people perspective attention is required to staff motivation and providing balanced job satisfaction, whilst ensuring that employees feel part of an integrated organisation maintenance strategy rather than of being under thread of disempowered by the technology. A myriad of considerations have been identified to affect the effective execution of conditionbase maintenance strategy on Eskom generator fleet. There are multiple dashboards or standards indicators that can be used for maintenance management improvement. It has been established that the success of the implementation of condition-based maintenance rests in the concept of total productive maintenance approach. Within the ambit of TPM, the entire process of maintenance must be managed on the basis of maintenance programmes plan, which will have function of connecting the various maintenance programmes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:7755 |
| Date | 20 November 2013 |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Johannesburg |
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