Asset Management Excellence

Asset Management Excellence

A Field Handbook

for Wind Energy Engineers and

Asset Managers

Go from Managing Failures To

Managing Performance

RAMESH RAO

Guiding through Knowledge

LIGHTHOUSE BOOKS

Copyright © 2020 by Ramesh Rao

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the Author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

For permission requests, mail to the Author: books@authorramesh.com

First Edition(2020)

Front and Back Cover Design & layout: Ramesh Rao

Cover Image Credit: By Unknown Author is licensed under the Creative Commons license CC BY-ND. The image has been used without any alteration, remix, or transformation.

I dedicate this effort

To my mother, who would have been

happy to see me write a book

To my father who instilled in me the belief that

knowledge is to be shared

To my in-laws whose blessings, I am sure, will

always be with me

To my wife Lakshmi, daughters Shobita & Nandita,

and son-in-law Ganesh,

for their patience, support, and encouragement

Table of Contents

PREFACE

Acknowledgement

Chapter 1

Asset Management Basics

What is Asset Management

Why is it required

Challenges in Asset Management

Asset Management Principles

Applying the Asset Management Principles

Enablers for good Asset Management

Asset Management, as it is today

Asset Management Plan

PAS-55/ISO55000:2014

Asset Management Standard

Chapter 2

The Asset Management Plan

1. Create an Asset Registry

2. Assess Performance Levels & Failure modes

3. Residual Life, Lifecycle & Replacement costs

4. Level of Service

5. Determination of Business Risks

The 4 Ts of Risk Management

6. Investment Decision Making

7. Repair/ Refurbish/ Replace decision

Chapter 3

The Asset Management Framework

The Five Goals of Asset Management

Applying the Asset Management Framework

What comes first and in what sequence?

Chapter 4

How and Why Equipment Fail

Failure Classification

The Categories of Failure

1. Age-related failure mode

Addressing Age-related equipment Failure

2. Non-age-related failure mode

Addressing Non-Age-related equipment Failure

3.  Infant Mortality failure mode

Addressing Infant Mortality failures

4. The Bathtub curve

5. Common Failure Modes

Why Assets Fail

Chapter 5

The P-F Curve – Backbone of RCM

What the P-F Curve does not tell

Why current maintenance practices are not good enough

Significant Sections of the P-F Curve

Chapter 6

Reliability Centred Maintenance

Maintenance Strategies

Reactive maintenance/ No-maintenance strategy

Run-to-fail maintenance

Corrective maintenance

Preventive Maintenance

Calendar-Based Maintenance

Risk Based Maintenance (RbM)

Condition Based Maintenance

Predictive Maintenance (PdM)

Chapter 7

Condition Monitoring

Ultrasonic Scanning

Electrical Current Signature Analysis (ECSA)

What ESA can detect

Ultrasonic for Electrical Systems

Detection of Partial Discharge & Corona Discharge

Other Inspections for the P-F Interval

Vibration Analysis

Purpose of Vibration Analysis

How it works

What causes vibrations

Measuring Vibrations

Analysing Vibrations

What Can Vibration Analysis Detect?

Lubricant Analysis

State of Oil Analysis Today

Significant Aspects of Used Oil Analysis

Precision Maintenance: The I-P section of the P-F Curve

Ensuring Precision Maintenance in a windfarm

Chapter 8

Preservation Techniques

Maintenance during Preservation

Chapter 9

Earthing System

Mechanism of Lightning Strike

Windfarm Earthing System

The Lightning Protection System (LPS)

Elements of Blade Lightning Protection System

Protection & testing

Lightning damage to blades and failure mechanism

Chapter 10

Rotor Blades Inspections & Maintenance

Inspection Methods

Rope Inspection

Ground based Inspection

Disadvantages of ground-based inspection

Drone based Inspection

Areas of Interest in a Wind Turbine Blade

Examples of Blade Damage

Leading Edge Erosion

Maintenance & repair

Steps to counter Leading Edge Erosion

Limiting the tip speed of the turbines

Protection solutions

1. Coatings

The effect of defects

The effect of poor adhesion

2. Leading Edge tapes

The effect of poor adhesion

Effect on aerodynamics

3. Erosion shields

Chapter 11

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

Chapter 12

Energy Loss Accounting

Chapter 13

Wind Farm Performance Losses

Chapter 14

Turbine Power Curves

Power Coefficient (Cp)

Power Curve Analysis

Defects that can be detected through Power Curve

1. Turbulence

2. Wake Impacts

3. Icing Impact

4. Parameter settings

5. Yaw misalignment

6. Pitching System Defects

7. Blade Soiling & Leading-Edge Erosion

8. Outage incidents

9. Power De-rate

Power Curve Upgrades

Stages in a Power Curve

Options for Power Curve upgrade

1. Pitch angle control

2. Passive flow control devices

3. Extension of power curve

4. Anti-icing and De-icing Systems

Chapter 15

Wind Turbine Control Systems

Key Forces and Controls

LCOE Impact

Recent Developments

Reliability Issues

Technology Forecast

Chapter 16

Operational Analytics

Power Generation

Event Reporting and Downtime Analysis

Power Curve Analysis

Resource quality and Availability

Yaw misalignment

Causes of Yaw Misalignment

Energy Loss Categories

Pitch curve analysis

Rotor curve analysis

Gearbox Performance Analysis

Chapter 17

Data Collection and Analysis

Data Collection Guidelines and formats

Recommendations for Data Collection

Recommendations for Integrity in Data Collection

Chapter 18

Computerized Maintenance Management System(CMMS)

What does CMMS contain

Importance of CMMS in Managing Maintenance

Implementation of a CMMS Package

Data Requirement for Successful Implementation

How to Track Data

What Data to Track

Customizing the CMMS

Chapter 19

New Technology Trends

Benefits of Using Technology for Efficient Operations

IIoT in wind turbine applications

Digital Twin

Drone-Based Inspections

Self-contained Acoustic Emission Monitors

Motion Amplification Vibration Analysis

Chapter 20

Contracting

The Goal of Asset Management

Points to Consider in a Supply Contract

Points to Consider in a Service Contract

End-of-Warranty Inspection

Start of Operations Inspection

Chapter 21

Measuring What Matters

The Key KPIs and Maintenance Metrics?

Chapter 22

A Business Case for Reliability

Maintenance Cost as a proportion of Asset Replacement Value (RAV)

LCOE Impact

Effect of Capacity factor

Impact of Capital Costs

Chapter 23

Workplace Safety

Basics of Machine Safeguarding

Where Mechanical Hazards Occur

Hazardous Mechanical Motions and Actions

Five Approaches to Machine Guarding:

Electrical Safety

The Five Rules for working in High Voltage Area

Tools Safety

Management Requirements (Responsibilities)

Chapter 24

Asset Management Organization Set-up

What comes first

Afterword

About the Author

References

PREFACE

Over the past several decades, the approach to Maintenance has undergone several changes, perhaps more rapidly than other management disciplines. The substantial increase in number and variety of physical assets, their complex designs and maintenance requirements have dictated how rapidly our understanding of maintenance needs to change. 

The past decade has seen several interesting theories, practical viewpoints, new maintenance techniques and changing views on maintenance strategies. There is, now, a better understanding of how assets fail, why they fail, the various failure modes, fault detection methods, and what I call, the Sixth Sense of fault detection techniques.

The new approach includes a rapidly growing awareness of the extent to which equipment failure affects reliability, safety, and the environment, a growing awareness of the connection between maintenance strategies and profitability.

Maintenance personnel are having to adopt completely new ways of thinking and acting, as engineers and as managers. At the same time the limitations of maintenance systems are becoming increasingly apparent, no matter how much they are computerized.

Motivated teams want to avoid the false starts and dead ends which always accompany major upheavals. Instead they seek a strategic framework which synthesizes the new developments into a coherent pattern, so that they can evaluate them sensibly and apply those likely to be of most value to them and their organizations.

In the face of this rapid change, asset managers everywhere are looking for guidelines that will help them choose, establish, and maintain the new approach to Asset Management.

My book on Asset Management Excellence, provides a framework which is about

Maintenance Strategies

Choosing a strategy appropriate to asset type

Management viewpoints

Implementation roadmaps

Excellence practices

Risk management through Contracts

Pitfalls in implementation and practice

Crystal clear definitions

Pro tips

There is an entire chapter dedicated to Reliability Centered Maintenance and associate practices. There are two chapters dedicated to Performance losses and Energy losses. Asset management practice would not be complete without a chapter being dedicated to contracts.

The central theme of this book is simple, yet profound.

"How you define failure

will decide how you maintain your machines".

The current change in focus from plant availability to asset reliability, will test the knowledge, implementation, and management skills, and also the ability of Engineers and Asset Managers to demonstrate

Improvement through Profitability

Ramesh Rao

Bangalore (INDIA), October 2020

A special feature of this book is the reader friendliness that is maintained in the narrative. Throughout this book, icons are used to highlight notable sections and special mentions. The list tells how these are used in this book.  

Acknowledgement

This book would not be considered as being complete without wholeheartedly acknowledging the contribution of those who have guided me through this project.

To all my colleagues, friends and well-wishers who helped me select the relevant topics for discussion, planned my book launch and helped me get noticed – Thankyou.

My sincere thanks to all the windfarm Engineers and Asset Managers for their probing questions. I acknowledge the contributions of my colleagues, who made the images available for this book.

A special thanks to my brother and mentor who pushed me to have belief in my capabilities and undertake this project. I will be ever grateful for his ideas, constant exhortations, and the interest that he took in my book writing success.

To my editors and printers, who answered all my queries with patience and enthusiasm – Thankyou.

Chapter 1

Asset Management Basics

Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. it is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for

- Peter F Drucker

What is Asset Management

Let us begin with a simple definition what constitutes Assets within Asset management. An Asset is a resource, controlled by a company, with future economic benefits, in a cost-effective manner.

In the context of electrical power generation, Asset Management refers to the management of all types of generation plants, wind power, solar, hydropower, coal-fired power plants, combined cycle gas-fired power plants, bio-gas, geo-thermal, nuclear power plants etc. and electricity transmission and distribution grids.

Asset Management could then, be termed as the Systematic Integration of advanced and sustainable management techniques into a management paradigm or way of thinking, with  Primary Focus on the long-term life cycle of the asset and its sustained performance, rather than short-term, day-to-day aspects of the asset.

Asset Management could be beautifully summarised as

Management paradigm and body of management practices

Applied to the entire portfolio of infrastructure assets at all levels of the organization

Seeking to minimize total costs of acquiring, operating, maintaining, and renewing assets

Within an environment of limited resources

While continuously delivering the service levels that customers desire and regulators require

At an acceptable level of risk to the organization

The process of management of assets, essentially, has a dual mandate - appreciation of value of the Assets over time, by improving the reliability of energy yield while mitigating the risks.

Why is it required

Aging infrastructure, the growing cost of power generation, and the need to respond to disruptive technologies are all intensifying the pressure on both conventional and renewable power generation, transmission, and distribution companies to invest in maintaining, growing and modernizing their assets.

With no let-up in safety and service standards or customer, shareholder, and stakeholder expectations, companies are increasingly challenged to do more with less.

The Asset Management Capability needed to achieve the necessary optimization of cost, risk, and performance is far greater now than we have seen before. With sector transformation accelerating, and the value chain growing  in complexity, investment in assets today has cost implications that will extend decades into the future.

To maximize the value of such investments, windfarm Owners, Independent Power Producers(IPPs) and Operators need to understand and manage the whole-life cost, risks that arise from time to time, and value of the Assets.

Challenges in Asset Management

EY research revealed that 70% of sector leaders believe Asset Management is becoming increasingly very complex and challenging, and that the challenges faced today will persist as disruptive trends and continue to impact the power generation sector.

Another challenge that companies face is the pressure to justify and demonstrate benefits of initiatives that are taken with an intension to optimize operations and reduce seemingly uncontrollable energy losses that cause distress, disappointment and disenchantment with Asset Management practices that have improvement at the heart. Summarizing the challenges that Asset Management, as a strategy, face are:

Data collection, Analytics & Diagnostics

On-field implementation of recommendations

Competence of personnel

Demonstrate tangible benefits

Connecting initiatives to desired outcomes

Not knowing where to start

Not being able to make a Business Case

Lack of confidence in the effectiveness of solutions

The Renewable Energy sector needs a fresh approach to Asset Management, to respond to current disruptions. Recognizing the wisdom within the Asset Management practices, and being able to adopt such practices to transform their business landscape, will decide how successful companies are with meeting the challenges posed by ageing infrastructure, and newer disruptive technologies

Looking at comprehensive Asset Management as the beginning of the journey to better value and profitability, will help companies unlock their inherent strengths.

Taking the initiative now, to adopt an intelligent approach to Asset Management, learn new concepts and skills, refine capabilities, and leverage new technologies, will create value and set organizations up to thrive, as the Renewable Energy sector transforms.

Asset Management Principles

To differentiate between the practice of Asset Management and simply managing one’s assets, the Institute of Asset Management (IAM) has developed a set of seven vital identifying principles that underlie all truly effective asset management systems. According to the IAM, good asset management must be:

1. Holistic

Looking at the big picture is critical in asset management. Rather than taking a compartmentalized approach, Asset Management must consider, the combined implications of managing everything together.

This means that an organization must consider the combination of its different asset types. An organization must look at how assets are functionally interdependent and what contributions they make within their own asset systems. They must also understand the life cycle phases of distinct assets and their corresponding activities.

2. Systematic 

Rigor and method are important when it comes to Asset Management. To be effective, Asset Management must be applied within a highly structured framework. This allows decisions and actions to be consistent, repeatable, and transparent.

3. Systemic

To properly establish total net value, assets must be examined within their system’s context. If assets are only examined in isolation, then it is difficult to correctly assess and optimize their performance, costs, and risks.

4. Risk-based

Making risk transparent is essential to an organization’s survival. Enterprises that do not adequately account for risk in their Asset Management, threaten not only the assets themselves, but the organization’s overall operations.

Thoroughly identifying potential risks and their associated costs and benefits, will help organizations to set priorities and allocate their resources and expenditures, appropriately.

5. Optimal

Optimization, or seeking and implementing the best possible value compromise between competing objectives and factors, is the aim of effective asset management.

Asset management considers all costs, benefits, risks, and performance factors associated with assets, throughout their life cycle, and weighs them against each other to make decisions about how the assets should be used.

6. Sustainable

When an organization embraces good Asset Management, they are also embracing long-term thinking—something that is not always a business priority. However, for assets to give their best to an organization, they must be sustainably managed.

What this means is that Asset Management must consider the long-term effects of short-term activities and ensure that future requirements and obligations (such as ongoing systems performance, societal responsibilities, end-of-life disposal and environmental or economic sustainability) are adequately provided for.

7. Integrated

All these asset management principles will be fully effective only if they are working together. Integration means that asset management is more than just the sum of its principles. It is a recognition of interdependencies and combined effects, as well as the need for a joined-up approach to delivering optimal value.

Applying the Asset Management Principles

The principles of asset management apply to all asset classes, such as passive assets (buildings and infrastructure), static assets (land), and active assets (mechanical, electrical, electronic, mobile plants, instruments, tools or even office equipment, software, etc.). It is only the specific techniques, a set of practices and life spans, which apply to individual assets, that are different. 

What this means to most organizations, even those managing a broad cross section of asset types, is that many of the principles of asset management are common to the organization, as a whole. 

Consequently, a uniform set of principles can be applied to all asset groups allowing the senior management to judge the relative merits of each activity or service. It is essential that Asset Management systems be able to provide the outputs required across the asset life cycle. 

These principles are briefly characterized as:

The Value Added/Level of Service Principle – Assets exist to deliver goods and services that are valued by the customers/stakeholders. For each consumer/stakeholder there is a minimum level of service below which a given service is not perceived as adding value.

The Life Cycle Principle – All assets pass through a discernable life cycle, the understanding of which enhances appropriate management.

The Failure Principle – Time, usage, and the operating environment, work to break down all assets. Failure occurs when an asset cannot do what is required to by the user, in its operating environment.

The Failure Modes Principle – Not all assets fail in the same way.

The Probability Principle – Not all assets of the same age fail at the same time.

The Consequence Principle – Not all failures have the same consequences.

The Total Cost of Ownership Principle – there exists a minimum optimal investment over the life cycle of an asset that best balances performance