THE APPLICATION OF COMPUTERISED MAINTENANCE & INVENTORY MANAGEMENT IN POWER STATIONS

Computerised maintenance management is a tool which if applied correctly can greatly improve the maintenance effectiveness in a power station environment. In 1984 ESB, the National Electricity company of the republic of Irelan specified and developed a computerised maintenance management system called Maintenance Controller(MC). This system was first installed at Moneypoint Power Station(900 MW). The System is operating in a variety of power station environments including Nuclear, Coal , Oil,Gas and Hydro. The system is used for managing maintenance of conventional steam, combustion turbine and combined cycle plants. This paper describes in detail: - The components of a computerized management and inventory systems. - The criterial to be used for the selection of a system. - The cost benefits of having such a system in place. - The implementation process and the experience within ESB and else where. - The importance of user feedback. - The effect of the system on day to day maintenance issues. - The future direction of computerised systems. Using two case studies, one from a coal fired power station the other from a combined cycle plant, the paper will discuss the issues associated with implementation of MC at both sites.A brief discussion on who uses the system in the power stations and their function The final discussion will concentrate on the management issues relating to maintenance and the use of Maintenance Performance Indicators(NIPIs) to view and assess the effectiveness of the maintenance organization. MPI can also be used to identify trends and initiate corrective actions. The importance of good maintenance history and the recording of failure modes and mechanisms will be discussed.