Power April 2022 Intl - 20

OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE
Making Power Plants Purr or
Putting Them to Sleep: Hard
Equipment and Soft Tools
Maintenance equipment and tools have always been important for plant operators. In
the early days, the tools were likely made entirely of iron and steel, copper and brass,
lead, leather, rubber, or glass. Some of those tools still apply, but now digital solutions
also play a role in managing efficient operations and maintenance departments.
Kennedy Maize
F
rom the beginning of electric power
production in the late 19th century,
plant operators and maintenance
staff have aimed to keep units running in
top shape. That goal remains. In a sports
analogy, the idea is to keep the plant in the
game, not on the injured reserve list. Or,
when their useful life is over, to retire them.
There is plenty of life left in the hard
tools of all sizes, still required for plant
maintenance, construction, and destruction.
Just take a look at the Enerpac
catalog of tools and equipment useful
in the power industry. Among the items,
you'll find a self-propelled modular trailer
capable of moving a 14-foot-diameter,
3-foot-thick steel plate through a narrow
passageway of a reactor building equipment
hatch, providing a radiation shield
at the bottom of a nuclear reactor head
assembly. You'll also find a hydraulic lift
system for leveling and supporting offshore
wind turbines in the turbulent
North Sea off Germany. And if you can't
find what you're looking for, you might
be able to collaborate with the company
to develop a solution (Figure 1).
Enerpac Tool Group has a market capitalization
of $1.08 billion and more than
2,100 employees. The company recorded
$131 million in sales for the first quarter
of fiscal 2022. Founded in 1910, the
company says its " businesses are global
leaders in high pressure hydraulic tools,
controlled force products and solutions
for precise positioning of heavy loads
that help customers safely and reliably
tackle some of the most challenging jobs
around the world. "
Jason Jones, Enerpac Tool Group director
of strategic sales, told POWER
that sales to the power industry, both
through dealers, direct sales, and manufacturing
tools, amounts to roughly
15% to 20% of the company's sales. He
noted, " Wind turbine sites require large
20
equipment, " and as the wind power industry
evolves, turbines become bigger
to produce more power per turbine. Gas
turbine business has seen a " significant
increase in production and safety " issues.
Nuclear has seen a " consolidation
within single sites. "
Power plant physical tools include cylinders,
pumps, hydraulics, bolting tools,
machining, mining, and skidding. In general,
it's all about heavy lifting. Those
tools often require the use of brute force,
employed by skilled workers who understand
how to use the equipment effectively.
Physical force, applied with brains
and experience, gets work done. Even
lesser tasks require trained personnel
using sophisticated tools, whether hand
tools or larger equipment.
The tasks these physical equipment
and tools serve are often difficult to manage.
Scheduling complexities, staffing
status, and ancillary resources all complicate
the tasks. One commentator noted
that " organizing all of that work is tough-
if not impossible-to do manually. "
Digital Tools
Many of today's power plant maintenance
tools are not physical. They are
built of 0s and 1s, not iron and steel.
Digital, built to organize and manage all
that hard physical work. Computers and
computer software have revolutionized
maintenance and its management, helping
to deploy the physical tools.
Initially primitive, digital tools for power
plants have evolved over some 20 years
into sophisticated, versatile, and often
cloud-based products, offered by many
vendors. As the SelectHub website explains,
" Power plant software fits into the
category of computerized maintenance
management systems (CMMS). More
specifically, since it's a specialized type of
asset management software and computer-aided
facility management software, it
www.powermag.com
1. Enerpac hydraulic cylinders are set to
have a key role in the final construction of the
ITER fusion tokamak in 2024. On completion
of assembly of the tokamak's vacuum vessel
sectors, nine cylinders-now pre-installed
at the bottom of the machine-will lift an
11-meter-diameter,
320-ton,
circular poloidal
magnet (PF6) into position at the base of the
tokamak. Here workers are shown testing the
Enerpac EVO systems and stack beam lifting
process for raising the PF6. Courtesy: Enerpac
helps you control your whole power plant. "
" In a nutshell, " says SelectHub, " the
software helps you control almost every
aspect of your power plant. This includes
organizing maintenance, scheduling workers
and collecting various types of data. Asset
management features are among the
most prominent, as performing preventive
maintenance is one of the most important
tasks of power plant management. "
The software doesn't do heavy lifting,
but it does tell you when, where, how,
and how often to perform routine tasks,
and when, if necessary, to apply the muscle.
Eagle Technology Inc., vendor of Proteus
MMX, a highly rated CMMS product,
outlines the role of CMMS software:
■ Decrease equipment downtime.
■ Help ensure safe and effective power
generation operations.
POWER | April 2022

http://www.powermag.com

Power April 2022 Intl

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