Power April 2022 - 21

OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE
A dozen or so CMMS packages are
2. Among computerized maintenance
management systems available on the market
today is Eagle Technology Inc.'s Proteus MMX.
Last year, the company announced the full
integration of Proteus MMX with Esri's ArcGIS
(geographic
information
system)
software
for location intelligence. The combination
provides numerous benefits, such as finding
assets, capturing data, and tracking patterns
in data. Courtesy: Eagle Technology
■ Meet regulatory and compliance standards.
■
Extends the life of power generation
assets.
■ Minimize investments in inventory.
CMMS software is an example of
the touted " Internet of Things, " or IoT.
The systems use the online network to
transfer data from the equipment to the
software to management to use in making
maintenance decisions.
While well adapted to power plant
operations,
many CMMS packages
also work in other major industrial facilities,
including chemical plant operations.
While power plants and chemical
plants are very different, they have many
common features,
including complex
maintenance systems working under
high-stress conditions, with high temperatures,
pressures, and weights. They
have daunting maintenance management
and scheduling tasks.
An article published in POWER in 2017,
accompanying the first Connected Plant
Conference-the 6th annual conference
is scheduled to take place in Atlanta,
Georgia, May 23-26, 2022-noted how
Duke Energy has used software " to detect
equipment failures earlier than was
previously possible, " noting that " the earlier
problems are detected, the more time
there is to plan, prioritize, schedule, and
execute repairs. " A Duke executive said,
" We have many sensors applied on our assets.
They're hardwired to numerous data
acquisition systems around the station.
Those data acquisition computers then
send information to the plant server wirelessly.
If we didn't have that architecture, it
would be far too expensive to install this,
because really 75% of the cost of the project
is related to installation of the wiring
for the sensors-and that's just for a very
short distance to these computers. "
April 2022 | POWER
suited for power plant operations. Several
online sites, including SelectHub,
Capterra, and Software Advice offer comparative
ratings of CMMS packages. It's
vital to investigate the products in detail
before making a financial commitment,
although the costs are small compared
to the big-iron equipment.
Several raters rank the CMMS systems,
but Capterra's scoring seems to
be the most complete. Capterra judges
the system's capabilities on " billing
and invoicing, calibration management,
inventory management, key and lock
management, mobile access, and preventative
maintenance. "
The top-rated Capterra and Software
Advice product is eMaint CMMS from
Fluke Reliability. The eMaint system
ranked second at SelectHub, where Proteus
(Figure 2) is on top. Fluke is a vendor
of a wide array of electronic tools,
including imagers and meters. It checks
all six of the Capterra categories. It is
cloud deployed, and available in Apple
and Windows applications but not Linux.
It is also in the low-cost category.
SelectHub says eMaint software
" tracking, managing and
works for
controlling assets, work orders and requests.
It includes workflows, inventory
and spare parts, maintenance management,
monitoring for equipment condition
and regulatory compliance support.
It's suitable for companies of all sizes
and serves many industries worldwide,
including manufacturing, oil and gas,
healthcare, and education. " Other rated
systems include Fiix, Limble CMMS, FTMaintenance
Select, Hippo CMMS, simPRO,
and more.
The Future for Power Plant
Equipment and Tools
Power
plants
in
the
of power plants and the future of power
plant software, it looks a lot brighter
than it did not all that long ago. There
are still challenges and uncertainties
ahead, especially as renewable energy
continues its growth. But when armed
with power plant software that provides
the right features, plants will be
able to improve and adapt to our everchanging
world. "
There likely will be a melding of hard
equipment and soft tools. A recent International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
survey concluded, " Operators and authorities
in more and more countries are moving
to immediately dismantle their retired
nuclear facilities, and emerging digital
technologies coupled with greater usage
of robots and drones are offering significant
potential for more effective project
implementation and risk reduction. "
The IAEA said, " Technologies such
as 3D modelling or building information
modelling (BIM), virtual reality and remotely
controlled technologies, including
drones and robots, are also being applied
increasingly to the decommissioning of
facilities that have reached the end of normal
life. These technologies enable more
efficient collection, understanding, display
and management of data, allowing
different scenarios to be visualized during
planning and preparation of dismantling
and decontamination activities. "
Enerpac Tool Group's Jones said his
future, whether
conventional or advanced, including fossil,
nuclear, or renewables, will need
construction and decommissioning assistance,
and plant maintenance. Construction
will require the big iron: heavy
lifting, major equipment moving, and installation
of repair and replacement parts.
New wind turbine blades require ways
to put them into place. Wind plants, both
on land and increasingly offshore, will
need assistance to get them situated.
Solar systems will need construction
help and maintenance.
All that hard work will need software
to assist and guide operations. SelectHub
market analyst Pratiksha Thayil
wrote, " As we look ahead to the future
www.powermag.com
company sees wind as a big growth opportunity,
and also foresees coupling
equipment with digital monitoring. For
wind, he said, operators will want to monitor
the physical load on the turbines remotely,
so they won't have to send crews
to check out the machines manually.
He also sees a definite movement into
rapid deployment of power plant infrastructure,
with " modular units built offsite, "
and then assembled onsite, saving
construction time and money. Assembly
will mean heavy lifting. He said Enerpac
is working with nuclear small modular
reactor developers Holtec International
and NuScale Power to provide at least a
couple of solutions.
Jones added that 3D printing is beginning
to make a significant impact on his
company.
It " has transformed how we
manufacture some of our tools, " so they
can be made " very quickly. " The company
started with 3D printing of plastic
handles, but " are now getting into metallic "
components. ■
-Kennedy Maize is a veteran energy
journalist and frequent contributor
to POWER magazine.
21
http://www.powermag.com
Power April 2022

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