POWER February 2012 - 26

INSTRUMENTATION & CONTROL
Comprehensive Asset
Management for Nuclear Plants
Asset management means different things to different people. But it boils down
to converting raw data and observations about equipment and components
into information and knowledge that is then used, propagated, and
shared by workers and digital components to manage performance. Nuclear
plants have special asset management needs, given the level of their
safety, reliability, and regulatory requirements.
By Jason Makansi, Pearl Street Inc. and Timothy Hurst, Hurst Technologies Inc.
D
ue to the demanding nature of
nuclear power plants' operations,
their asset management strategies
are inherently complicated. For example,
a person at a nuclear plant who is responsible
for the performance of a pump might
refer to the online condition-monitoring
system, together with the operator rounds
of data collected regularly, periodically,
or intermittently, as asset management.
Indeed, asset management, as described in
basic engineering technical specifications
for a new nuclear plant, may only cover
the plant-level definition (Table 1). Yet it
is so much more than that.
At the owner/operator executive level,
the asset management system is probably
thought of more in terms of the business
management systems (such as those supplied
by SAP, IBM, and Oracle), which
specifically link to the power plant data
and digital systems. The distinction often
made here is between the corporate information
technology (IT) system and the
operations technology system. But it is
not just that either.
In between the plant workers and the
executive suite are several other critical elements
of " asset management, " including
the off-line or periodic condition-testing
data, other monitored process and supervisory
variables, and predictive analytics
software, all of which can be combined
with work processes and procedures to
form the reliability centered maintenance
(RCM) system.
Any or all of the elements just described
have logical interfaces with the
computerized maintenance management
system, stores and inventory management
systems, central or corporate engineering
department, centralized or multi-asset
portfolio performance-monitoring facility,
outage planning and scheduling processes,
and so on.
26
Asset Management Starts at the
Design Phase
One of the greatest challenges today in new
plant design, engineering, and construction
is to ensure that the asset management " system "
is compatible with the owner/operator's
existing business and plant-level systems. For
the most part, the asset management system
is fragmented among different pieces of software,
often found in various functional silos
such as operations; maintenance; environmental,
health, and safety; instrumentation
Table 1. Not so simple. Asset management at the plant level might be synonymous
with a condition-monitoring system and analogous to other plant functions, such as operations
and performance monitoring, maintenance management, and reliability-centered maintenance.
Source: Pearl Street Inc.
Operations & performance monitoring
Safety
Nonsafety
Distributed control system/Control and automation systems
Data historian
Predictive analytics
Process optimization
Radiation monitoring
Regulatory compliance reporting
Maintenance management
Safety
Reliability-centered maintenance
Planned maintenance
Computerized maintenance management software
Outage planning and scheduling
Safety and compliance management
Nonsafety
Predictive analytics
Preventative maintenance
Spares inventory
Condition monitoring
Supply chain management
Reliability-centered maintenance
Failure modes and effects analysis
Root cause analysis
Critical equipment analysis
Hazard and risk analysis
Corrective actions
Task analysis
Condition monitoring
Safety
Operating hours
Motor hot spots
Oil analysis
www.powermag.com
Vibration monitoring
Acoustic emissions
Infrared thermography
POWER | February 2012
Nonsafety
Motor current
Ultrasonics
Thermal performance
Emissions monitoring
Water and solid waste discharge monitoring
Alarm management
http://www.powermag.com
POWER February 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER February 2012
