Energetica India Magazine -October 2020

POWER SECTOR 57 energetica INDIA- October_2020 plant that is currently being demolished. So, one can see the old generation being put to sleep while the new generation is being built. Ability to Adapt and Customise Determining the right format for power generation is only the beginning of a power plant’s journey. Once the plant starts its commercial operation, how the power generation assets are managed is critical to its overall performance and profitability. Traditionally, plant maintenance was being carried out accord- ing to a manual that dictated that after X number of running hours, you should do this and that. However, Expertise Cen - tres which are digitally connected to power plants can also operate or maintain them, infact in better way, as compared to traditionally. These centres gather data from each power plant, allowing engineers to identify issues that require maintenance and take proactive steps, rather than reacting to a problem after it occurs or conducting unnecessary maintenance activities. In case operational support is needed, it can be provided re- motely from the centres. In 2018, nearly 70 per cent of the operational support cases received by our Expertise Centres were solved remotely and over 50 per cent were resolved that same day. From the information gathered from the plant and the engines, we can see whether we perhaps have to work on some en- gines now, and the others we can postpone for maybe 1,000 or 2,000 running hours. These high-tech centres, which in- volve asset diagnostics, maintenance management, and operational support, are part of why customers performance guarantees can be confidently offered. There are efficiency guarantees, consumption guarantees – anything that involves a substantial cost or revenue for our customer. For example, you have availability guarantees – wherein it could be said that a plant is available 96 per cent of the time — which of course has a big impact on the financials compared to it being 90 per cent available. Data shows that the average annual availability for gas engine power plants operated by company is 96.7 per cent and aver- age annual reliability is 99.1 per cent. Adapting to a Customer’s Needs This kind of maintenance and operational support is often crit- ical when a new facility starts its commercial operation. Sometimes customers do not have a lot of experience, so they run a risk of managing the plants themselves. While, others have faith on solution providers that they can run their plant more efficiently than anyone else. These solution providers can adapt and customise service agreement for power plants as the situation evolves.