Abstract
The South African power generation sector has been under the spotlight in the last decade due to its inability to produce the required load capacity demanded by the grid. Load-shedding has caused a nationwide crisis, where households cannot receive electricity due to Eskom’s system constraints and energy availability issues. Maintenance on Power Stations has been neglected and has not been conducted efficiently and effectively leading to minimal availability of the plant - this is typically due to inexperienced staff and negligence. Breakdowns are more likely to occur frequently with the maintenance on plant equipment not done regularly, leading to the power required not being generated. The study is aimed at improving the overall maintenance strategy used by different system engineers on respective plant’s. Through the investigation of effective methods to improve production efficiency. Along with creating a more efficient plant with better performance, by examining the efficiency of thermal power plant’s using Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) andWorld Class Maintenance (WCM) standards. This research study follows a quantitative study approach through the analysis of secondary data provided by Matimba Power Station, which analyses all the plant failures and stoppages during plant operation. The Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is the KPI used to evaluate the performance of the power station. Furthermore, milling plant failures are analysed in attempts to identify initiatives that lead to the overall increase in availability and reliability, which in turn increases efficiency. The research findings indicate that Matimba Power Station’s KPI’s are all below the WCM standard with the performance score being 83.76%, the availability score being 85.28% and the quality rating being 85.02%. The OEE rating is 62.99% which alludes to the performance rating of the thermal power plant. Recommendations to improve these KPI’s are presented and include early reviewal of the maintenance strategy and implementation of new maintenance methods such as Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). Research findings also indicate that the milling plant is the main contributor to Unplanned Capability Loss Factor (UCLF) due to equipment failure and outage deferrals. Improvement recommendations are made such as autonomous condition monitoring and proactive maintenance and by so doing the power station reliability and availability will increase significantly.
M.Phil. (Engineering Management)