NABCEP's PV Commissioning & Maintenance Specialist (PVCMS) Board Certification highlights your expertise in the areas of operations, maintenance and commissioning. It spotlights your ability to apply verification protocols, critically analyze systems, and implement preventive and corrective maintenance procedures for PV systems.
Facilities operations and maintenance encompasses a broad spectrum of services, competencies, processes, and tools required to assure the built environment will perform the functions for which a facility was designed and constructed. Operations and maintenance typically includes the day-to-day activities necessary for the building/built structurei, its systems and equipment, and occupants/users to perform their intended function. Operations and maintenance are combined into the common term O&M because a facility cannot operate at peak efficiency without being maintained; therefore the two are discussed as one.
Power System Commissioning And Maintenance Practice.rarl
The scope of O&M includes the activities, processes, and workflows required to keep the entire built environment as contained in the organization's Real Property Inventory of facilities and their supporting infrastructure, including utility systems, parking lots, roads, drainage structures and grounds in a condition to be used to meet their intended function during their life cycle. These activities include both planned preventive and predictive maintenance and corrective (repair) maintenance. Preventive Maintenance (PM) consists of a series of time-based maintenance requirements that provide a basis for planning, scheduling, and executing scheduled (planned versus corrective) maintenance. PM includes adjusting, lubricating, cleaning, and replacing components. Time intensive PM, such as bearing/seal replacement, would typically be scheduled for regular (plant or "line") shutdown periods. Per the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), Predictive Maintenance attempts to detect the onset of a degradation mechanism with the goal of correcting the degradation prior to significant deterioration in the component or equipment. Corrective maintenance is a repair necessary to return the equipment to properly functioning condition or service and may be either planned or un-planned. Some equipment, at the end of its service life, may warrant overhaul. Per DOD, the definition of overhaul is the restoration of an item to a completely serviceable condition as prescribed by maintenance serviceability standards.
System-level O&M Manuals. Organizations that require a higher level of O&M information beyond the typical vendor equipment documents should ensure sufficient funds are set aside and appropriate scope/content/format requirements are identified during the planning stage. It is important to analyze and evaluate a facility from the system level, then develop procedures to attain the most efficient systems integration. System-level manuals include as-built information, based on the maintenance program philosophy. O&M procedures at the system level do not replace manufacturers' documentation for specific pieces of equipment, but rather supplement those publications and guide in their use. For example, system-level troubleshooting will fault-analyze to the component level, such as a pump, valve or motor, then reference specific manufacturer requirements to remove, repair, or replace the component. Documentation should typically meet or exceed client or commercial standards, such as ASHRAE Guidelines (e.g., Guideline 4-2008 (R 2013) Preparation of Operating and Maintenance Documentation for Building Systems) for format and content, and be tailored specifically to support the Owner's Maintenance Program (MP).
To support efficient Operation and Maintenance (O&M), it is important that facility O&M documentation (1) be required by the owner and (2) be accurate, and (3) be available in a timely fashion. System-level and manufacturer manuals of as-installed systems and equipment, including as-built drawings, should be available for review by the owner over the course of the Construction Phase. However, it is not uncommon for this documentation to be delivered at fiscal closeout, long after the owner has moved into the building. To efficiently operate a facility at turnover, O&M information must be available prior to fiscal completion, owner occupancy, and especially before operator/maintainer training. If this currently is not the case, owners may need to revise their procurement specifications to mandate the requirement. Although obtaining O&M documentation may be overseen by the owner's representative or building commissioning agent, the effort should be coordinated with/overseen by the owner's construction manager to ensure it is being accomplished.
O&M organizations may utilize Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) to manage their day-to-day operations and to track the status of maintenance work and monitor the associated costs of that work. These systems are vital tools to not only manage the day-to-day activities, but also to provide valuable information for preparing facilities key performance indicators (KPIs)/metrics to use in evaluating the effectiveness of the current operations and to support organizational and personnel decisions. These systems are starting to be integrated more and more with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Building Information Modeling (BIM) technologies and COBie to increase/improve a facility's operational functionality.
Health care facility power systems are required to operate dependably, with high reliability and availability. They must operate and give the same results on successive trials as well as function at any instant required and from that point forward.
Best practices can be undertaken throughout the life cycle of power systems. The power system life cycle starts with planning, design, construction, installation and commissioning. It then continues with ongoing inspection, testing and maintenance. Existing power systems may have unknown vulnerabilities that can be uncovered and removed or mitigated. And, finally, management of the power systems should include identifying preferred failure responses and planning appropriately for them.
Despite best efforts, power equipment sometimes fails. Installing power systems that mitigate the impact of discrete equipment failures can be a best practice that allows rapid response for isolation and repair of failed equipment. Examples are power systems with multiple electrical utility feeds as well as main and tie device arrangements that can be switched automatically, manually or both. The adverse impact of incoming utility service failures also might be mitigated if the facility power system contains means to connect portable equipment such as generator sets. All portable equipment connections also should be designed considering electrical safety.
Power equipment design choices also can encompass best practices by specifying equipment details that facilitate ongoing inspection, testing and maintenance. Modern power system equipment contains many features that can be used to maintain or improve dependability.
For example, infrared viewports can be installed within the outer enclosures of power equipment. These viewports allow regular infrared thermographic scanning of interior components to be performed without the risk of opening the covers of energized equipment. Likewise, manufacturer-recommended maintenance of emergency power automatic transfer switches (a National Fire Protection Association NFPA 110 requirement) is facilitated when the automatic transfer switches are bypass-isolation design. The bypass-isolation design is intended to permit the electromechanical transfer mechanism to be maintained without causing a power outage of its high-priority loads. Additionally, electrical power switchgear can be provided with special features to improve electrical safety during equipment testing and maintenance.
Proactively determining the changing load on major power equipment as the facility evolves is a best practice. There are many ways to do this, including power monitoring systems, portable metering and load profile analyses.
As the demands upon our facilities change, the power systems may not always change with them. Many hospitals operate with power equipment that is decades past its useful life. In those cases, enhanced inspection and maintenance are critical to continued dependable operation.
Annual infrared thermographic scanning of electrical power equipment is a best practice. It helps organizations to discover potential problem areas and correct them before they develop into dangerous and disruptive failures. It also can be used as a predictive maintenance tool to help focus limited funding.
Many power failure procedures simply assume the loss of incoming utility service. Although this assumption certainly has a major impact on the facility, it is not the most common example of a power failure experienced within hospitals. Power system-related failures are more commonly a malfunctioning component such as a transfer switch, a short circuit within a feeder due to construction or other damage, a lighting ballast failure that trips out a major riser to multiple floors, or any other failure that results in the loss of one or more panelboards, motor control centers or switchboards.
Finding and mitigating vulnerabilities. There are many available activities that can have a positive impact on the dependability of existing power system installations. Facility personnel can find power system vulnerabilities by assessing their physical installations, operations, training, communications, inspections, testing, maintenance, electrical safety, contingency planning and hidden common-mode failure potential for their effect on reliability, availability and dependability.
Assessing failure risks. Risk assessments are used regularly where required in many aspects of the health care physical environment. They are not often used, however, to assess existing power systems, where they may be considered to be a best practice. Examples of power system risk-assessment topics can include: 2ff7e9595c
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