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HydroVantage reduces Capital Expenditure Budget by 25%In 1999 Energie Maclaren of Quebec asked Hatch Energy to review the 20-year Capital Expenditure Plan developed by the company for its three hydropower stations. The ten generating units have installed capacities ranging between 19 and 26 MW; age of generating equipment varies between 23 and 73 years. Hatch Energy used HydroVantage software to determine optimum strategies and intervention timings for replacement or rehabilitation of key components. Following on-site inspections and equipment condition assessments Hatch Energy developed new failure probability curves for specific components, prepared failure consequence cost data for all components under study, assessed the probability of occurrence of known failure modes, and determined operation and maintenance costs before and after planned interventions. HydroVantage was used to study 40 different components, and to carry out sensitivity analyses of the factors that would cause failures. The results became the basis of revisions to the existing capital plan. |
Amongst the findings were changes in prioritization of planned maintenance projects. Major turbine upgrade and rewind projects were deferred, while other components, among them actuators, runner seals and thrust bearings, were brought forward. The result was a 25.5 per cent life cycle cost reduction in the $20 million Capital Expenditure budget, and direct cost reduction of 15.8 per cent. Total cost of the study was less than 3 per cent of the savings. |
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