Self-Managing Major Maintenance
of Gas and Steam Turbine Generators
Over the past several decades, having long-term parts and service agreements (LTPSA) in place for new simple- and combined-cycle power plants has been the commercial norm. Unfortunately, today’s high-demand market for new turbines and generators has had a spill-over effect on new parts and services, resulting in price spikes in LTPSA quotations recently received by some power plant owners. Given the present pricing climate, and rather than locking-in high prices for the next 20 or 30 years, self-performing major maintenance is a reasonable alternative. After all, power plant owners and operators self-managed major maintenance long before LTPSA’s came onto the scene.
Self-managing major maintenance of turbines, generators, and their ancillaries requires keeping a core group of qualified staff on-hand or available (speed-dial) to respond to planned and unplanned maintenance events. For specialized knowledge and expertise, manufacturer representatives may be contracted on a case-by-case basis to attend and advise on the work. The existing plant staff can manage the inventory of spare parts and materials, as well as undertake preparations and overall management of maintenance outages. Formal workflow processes and maintenance procedures provide the necessary consistency, quality, and safety compliance.
After all, power plant owners and operators self-managed major maintenance long before LTPSA’s came onto the scene.
Over time and with competition, market pricing for LTPSA is expected to moderate. Establishing an LTPSA may become a more reasonable option in the future.
About Productive Outcomes
Productive Outcomes serves as an Owner's Representative; an integral member of the owner’s organization to monitor, measure, and manage the financial performance of an enterprise, project, or portfolio using discipline and proven best practices. We provide roadmaps to success in solving difficult and unusual problems in support of physical asset management, encompassing the entire life cycle range from new power project development, through new construction and operating phases, to power plant decommissioning at end of life.