Eskom Specialisation Centre in Plant Asset Management

 

In 2012 Eskom established the Eskom Power Plant Engineering Institute (EPPEI) to produce highly skilled engineers at post-graduate level within eight broad specialization areas at universities in South Africa.  The University of Pretoria was identified for the establishment of such a specialization centre in plant asset management.  This contract was renewed in 2017 for a five year period ending 2021.

For more information about the EPPEI programme, see: http://www.eppei.co.za/

 

Course based Post-graduate Qualification

The centre at UP is responsible to develop and present a range of post-graduate courses in the general field of asset integrity management. These courses form part of a larger Post-Graduate Qualifications programme and allows articulation between participating universities.

More details about the post-graduate course programme at UP can be found at http://www.up.ac.za/en/mechanical-and-aeronautical-engineering/article/48458/postgraduate

 

Research thrusts

EPPEI is also responsible for a very active and vibrant research programme in aspects of plant integrity management in the power engineering environment.

The current main EPPEI research thrusts are:

 

Design and Manufacture:

• Optimisation of steam turbine laser shock peening for power plant engineering applications
• Optimisation of heat treatment ramp rates on thin-walled components

 

Materials characterization

• The development of materials models for power plant engineering applications

 

Data Acquisitioning

• Dynamic optical measurement techniques for power plant engineering applications

 

Condition monitoring and non-destructive testing

• Development of specialised structural response measurement techniques for power engineering applications
• Turbine blade tip timing
• Non-linear acoustic response

 

Remaining useful life

• Development of methods for remnant life estimation in power plant engineering applications

 

Loading and environmental inputs

• Development of models to determine steam turbine blade forces under off-design conditions

 

In the area of life cycle management decision support the centre focuses its research around Eskom’s Standard Thermal Performance Model.

 

Current work comprises:

 

Configuration management:

• Review of maintenance strategies as a result of station cycling
• Midlife refurbishment and plant renewal utilising “lean” methodologies
• Techno Economic RAM Model of FGD installation at Kendal power station

 

Work Management

• Simulate and optimise outage criteria under varying load conditions

 

Spares and materials management

• Multi Criteria Models for Optimisation of Spares
• Develop Model for Optimisation of Spares Using Condition Information

 

Equipment reliability

• Maintenance strategy optimisation at milling plant.
• RAM Analysis on water supply to power stations under varying load conditions.
• Turbine overhaul assessment in conjunction with running hours, age and overhaul strategy

 

Plant operations

• Development of algorithms for collating dissociated information sources on site
• Maximising flexibility and performance of installed plant
• Station life cycle performance optimised using advanced technologies
• Distilling useful information often lost in the “noise” of plant data sources

 

 

Contact details

 

For further information about the programme contact Ms Bonolo Mokoka at [email protected] or 012 420 2096.

You may also contact Prof Stephan Heyns who is the director of C-AIM at [email protected], or Prof Johann.Wannenburg, who is the incumbent of the Chair of Plant Asset Management, at [email protected].