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Comment by landemva | Hacker News Reader

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landemva·

>> That's not good for systems like this.

Do you have insider maintenance knowledge or is this a hunch? How many fluid samples have you sent to the lab?

Big machines are thermally designed to run at 100%. Oil and lube can be stretched for the proper economic incentive.

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12 years experience in hydro:it does not matter, if it has moving parts, it will require maintenance.

You need to stop the machines to measure critical parts are in good shape. You need to change consumables too.

And some controls are by law every X hours of operation.

> And some controls are by law every X hours of operation.

In Texas?

People forget: you must stop machines at a time of your choosing because if you find out it won't start up again it better be at a time where it doesn't cause huge problems to have to fix it.

In a snappy aphorism:

Schedule your downtime or your equipment will do it for you.

Procrastination delegates decisions from you to circumstance.

Well the article mentions it. My numerous tours of power plants. And 20 years of stories from my uncle (now retired) who was an engineer on power generation (mostly hydroelectric, a little nuclear). And a bit of my own experiences with mechanical systems.

I read that in the article quoting from the trade association person. My experience is big plants can run at 100% for a long time, if during past downtime the PM was completed and not just penciled-in. At this scale, the PM is recorded and signed. I guess most or all of the plants should do okay. Anyway, too late for worry to be useful!

The Gov. of Texas called for PMs this spring to be cut short due to an early heat wave. That means that some plants lost 1/3 of their planned PM time to be back online.

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