Effective turbo-alternator maintenance through partnership

The demand for increased output from turboalternator units has sharpened the focus on three criteria: greater plant reliability; increased plant efficiency; and shorter downtimes for overhaul. Furthermore, electric utilities are striving to identify the core business activities and concentrate their resources on these, thus placing greater emphasis on external suppliers for support activities. These factors have placed great strain on both the traditional methods of managing outages and on the contractual arrangements between the supplier and the customer. This paper traces the development of a “partnership” process adopted for the preparation and execution of turboalternator outages