The availability of equipment in industrial installations, in generation or distribution of electrical energy is essential for the operation of these electro-intensive installations. In practice, any setback or unplanned downtime means economic losses and other inconveniences that can significantly harm the industry’s activity.
To avoid this, in addition to regular maintenance, it is possible to anticipate some known or very likely failures. A predictive maintenance is complex and may require several parameters and monitoring that in practice can make it inefficient or require changes in the installation to take measures that imply additional investments and changes.
For example, components whose use is affected by duty cycles, temperature, voltage, etc., would – at least theoretically – require a measurement of these parameters, which can be highly variable depending on the installation. For example, a photovoltaic generation installation may have different duty cycles depending on cloudiness, which could affect the lifetime of electronic or mechanical components.
However, it is possible to anticipate some failures efficiently without the need for complex measurements. The lifetime of some components is known in advance – although the lifetime may vary depending on the above, in practice it is cost-effective and easy to anticipate failures based on the lifetime measured in hours, as is the case for example with capacitors, both AC and DC.
Advantages of maintenance of critical components to extend the lifetime of electro-intensive installations
Therefore, from ZGR Corporación, we recommend a change of critical components before the estimated useful life ends, as this has several advantages:
- Extending the useful life of the installation. While critical components have a useful life, between 6 and 8 years, most of the generation, industrial or electricity distribution facilities expect a much longer useful life of their equipment.
- Ensure the availability of the installation. Planning component replacement work makes it possible to carry out this work at times of shutdown or when it is most convenient for the installation. The risk of not doing it is to have a shutdown or unavailability at any other time.
- Cost savings. In addition to the savings in guaranteeing availability, savings are also relevant for the rest of the components that could be affected in the event of a breakdown. Capacitors, when they reach the end of their useful life could burst, causing damage not only to those components but also to the other elements in the equipment that could be affected such an explosion.
ZGR technical service
To assist its customers in the operation of their electro-intensive installations, ZIGOR offers a critical component replacement service. Thanks to the modularity of its equipment, it is possible to remove parts of the equipment (power modules), temporarily replace them with others to ensure the continuity of the equipment’s operation, and replace the critical components in the removed module, to put it back into service at the appropriate time.
If you would like to know the details of this operation or receive an offer, please contact ZGR at sac@zigor.com
At ZGR Corporación we are experts in developing reliable, robust and productive solutions for the integrated management of electrical energy, maximizing its value for our clients. We provide support to our clients under a concept of Integral Supply Management, from the development of technological solutions, the integral service and the maintenance of electro-intensive installations. Our differential design capacity based on modularity, engineering and manufacturing is our added value.
If you liked this article on the maintenance of electro-intensive installations and you want to keep up to date with trends, innovations, technologies and new systems and equipment, follow our blog because we love to share and we will be telling you about them. Come and subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn.
