“O custo do cuidado é sempre menor do que o do reparo”. Essa famosa frase corporativa resume bem a importância de garantir a segurança das instalações elétricas e impedir sérios problemas que, mais do que causar danos materiais, podem custar vidas. 

Carrying out maintenance work correctly avoids unnecessary costs such as machine replacement, operational downtime, asset losses and part replacements.

As building and equipping electrical assets is not one of the easiest and cheapest tasks, combined with the high impact they cause on society, any damage to park structures or equipment is a huge setback and loss.

In one of our daily inspections, for example, our engineers noticed that the SF6 gas level in a circuit breaker was low. With daily monitoring, it was noticed that there was a leak, where gradually the SF6 Insulation gas from a circuit breaker was being released into the environment.

This is a typical case of corrective maintenance, but there are other means of maintenance that are so essential for the proper functioning and safety of electrical assets.

Maintenance activities, therefore, are based on three basic types: Corrective, Preventive and Predictive.

 

Corrective maintenance

The story above illustrates well the need for corrective maintenance: when the system already has diagnosed failures and needs a certain speed of repair, such as a broken machine or a design error.

Corrective maintenance activities are generally performed in four phases:

• 1 – fault detection (engineer noticed the low level of SF6 gas);
• 2 – fault isolation (S.I performance for intervention);
• 3 – elimination of the fault (repair at the leak point and supplement the gas up to the specified limit);
• 4 – verification that the fault was really eliminated (daily monitoring with annotation of values).

 

Fault elimination can be performed in three ways:

• 1 – adjust/align/calibrate;
• 2 – rework (physically altering a component to restore its functional structural conditions; welding, bushing, splicing, tinplate, connections and reinforcements);
• 3 – remove and replace.

 

As seen, companies should avoid that their facilities only undergo corrective maintenance, as there is usually a greater financial cost and effort in the work.

 

Preventive maintenance

The most correct way to minimize accidents and problems caused by the malfunction of electrical systems, such as fires and unexpected stops, and also for equipment that suffers from constant wear and tear.

Preventive maintenance follows an inspection plan, making the necessary adjustments to preserve machines and installations before accidents.

As the problems found in this phase are small and easily resolved, this type of maintenance is cheaper as it prevents breakdowns or losses from occurring. 

 

Predictive Maintenance

The application of predictive maintenance occurs mainly when preventive maintenance is not enough to avoid failures that generate corrective maintenance, and that can generate negative impacts on productivity, consequently on the financial performance of the company.

Predictive maintenance punctually checks the condition of equipment in order to anticipate failures in the state of production machines. The detection of failures or possible need for repair assists in predictive maintenance, safeguarding the process of production excellence. Among the biggest advantages of predictive maintenance is the cost reduction in relation to a highly complex emergency action.

 

Conclusion

Always keep a maintenance plan for your asset, with scheduled inspections to make the necessary corrections and avoid unnecessary costs. To do this, find a partner company that is qualified to prepare and execute the maintenance plan.

Cotesa Engenharia has experience and has carried out maintenance of electrical assets of Generation & Transmission of Energy since 1997. We guarantee the fulfillment of inspections with quality professionals so that the installations and machines operate in perfect conditions.