The Importance of Electrical Reliability

Real-world electrical systems tend to have some degree of design deficiency, obsolete equipment, less than adequate maintenance practices or equipment in operation beyond its design capability.

These conditions when left unchecked can lead to costly problems in the short term, or sometime down the road. Unplanned outages lead to the loss of production, shorter equipment lifespan, increased overtime labour, potential safety issues and environmental impact. Suboptimal electrical power systems may see unplanned outages, but also a loss in overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) which can have a huge impact on revenue potential in certain applications.

Benefits of Reliability

Reduced...

• Unplanned Outages

• Liability

• Maintenance Cost

• Outage Duration

Minimized...

• Equipment Damage

• Loss of Production

• Environmental Risks

• Improved Safety

Consider this...

Reliability requirements for facilities vary based on their criticality to the organization. Unplanned outages can cost millions of dollars in damages, directly and indirectly. Further, reliability impacts the performance and compensation of a facility’s engineers, operators and plant managers. Although often poorly understood among stakeholders, electrical system reliability is directly tied to productivity and operating cost.

Taking out the Guess Work

Improving electrical reliability doesn’t have to be a guessing game. Magna IV Engineering can empower you to make informed decisions through a comprehensive analysis of your power system. We employ a bottom-up approach to determine areas that can be improved to reduce potential downtime, safety issues, and environmental risks.

When considering reliability services, it is paramount to consider all three pillars of electrical reliability;

1. Engineering Design

2. Day-to-day operations

3. Overall electrical maintenance

Our Process

• Site Visit

• Asset Criticality Assessment

• Evaluate Facility’s Reliability Programs

• Conduct Analysis for Potential FailuresFault Tree Analysis

• Failure Mode Event Analysis

• Cause & Effect Analysis

• Sequence of Events Analysis

• Ishikawa/Fishbone Analysis

• Reliability Block Diagram

• Weibull Analysis

Solutions

• Reduce asset criticality

• Early detection & monitoring

• Performance trending critical parameters

• Improve preventative maintenance program

• Predictive maintenance program (condition based)

Our team is well aware of the operating cost constraints faced by facilities. We can generate recommendations based on criticality, cost and time line. This will allow clients to prioritize and implement recommended solutions.

All reliability studies by Magna IV Engineering include short-, medium-, and long-term recommendations, as well as capital cost estimates.

Through the use of Weibull Analysis, the current electrical system can be evaluated against the implementation of the study recommendations, the enhanced reliability of your system can be calculated to accurately predict the financial benefit.

Magna IV Engineering extensively applies industry standards, guidelines and recommendations (IEEE Std 493, NFPA 70B, NETA –MTS, etc.) to support reliability study findings.