Estimate Method of Residual Life of Power Plant Equipment

The paper considers a method for improving the maintenance reliability of power-generating equipment. The method is based on monitoring and forecasting a current technical state of the equipment under control and allows determining estimates and forecasting equipment residual life according to the maintenance data in real time. The estimates of residual life of the equipment use composite indices. An on-line algorithm for the recognition of the equipment pre-emergency situation is proposed. The algorithm can forecast possible equipment failures and unforeseen situations. It implicates improving dependability maintenance and remedial maintenance. A method to preemptive scheduling of remedial maintenance is proposed. The method uses composite indices for on-line monitoring and forecasting estimates of residual life of equipment stock. The criterion of equipment failures' minimum forms the basis of the scheduling optimization problem. An automated information system for monitoring and real-time forecasting of the energy equipment residual life is proposed. Dropping the unscheduled outages for a turbo-generator with the power 40 MW implies the economic benefit of about 8 thousand dollars per diem.