IMC-2018 Learning Session 44:59

by Justin T Hatfield, HECO - All Systems Go

Reliability and electric motors do not always seem to go hand-in-hand. There is electrical reliability and mechanical reliability, but what about electro-mechanical reliability? This can exist, and it does for many plants across the country! This presentation covers how to create a reliable electric motor driven powertrain over the entire lifecycle of the electric motor. Starting with selecting and purchasing the correct motor, having a general specification for general motor purchases and creating custom specifications for large/critical motor purchases. We then transition into how motors are tracked and maintained while in-operation, including the variety of condition monitoring techniques that can be used. Eventually, even a well-planned, sourced, and maintained electric motor will have an issue of some kind and must go out for repair. We then review the need for a repair specification that ensures that you are getting repairs done to the standards that your plant requires. We evaluate how to assess which repair vendors are capable of repairing to that specification by surveying, reviewing, and selecting vendors based on pre-determined criteria. You then can work with repair vendors as partners and even go towards standardizing & simplifying the way repairs are priced. Finally, we review the process of evaluating if you should keep spare motors or not. A variety of factors allow you to make this decision, primarily focusing on criticality of equipment and lead time for repair/replace. Another factor is having the necessary resources to maintain and store a spare motor properly. Following completion of this presentation, you will have a variety of ideas that will allow you to take the next steps towards creating electric motor reliability from initial purchase, maintenance, and even repair's for the entire lifecycle of an electric motor.