Reliability, availability, and maintainability of utility and industrial cogeneration power plants

The author provides insight into the reasons why power generating plants in the industrial cogeneration sector have achieved levels of reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) performance that are significantly higher than those of similar plants in the utility sector. In addition, the author shows that many of the factors reported to be responsible for the observed performance differences in these plants are the same as those found in numerous studies of plant performance during a period of 15 years. A summary of the factors reported to influence the performance of cogenerator plants, some highlights from past studies regarding the factors found to constrain the performance of utility plants, and some major conclusions based on the information summarized and referenced by the author, are given