THE IET’s publication Electrical Maintenance has been completely revised and now includes up-to-date information on key areas including fire alarms, emergency lighting, risk assessment and legislation.
Why perform maintenance?
Maintenance is carried out for the following reasons:
- To prevent danger
- To reduce unit cost and to keep a facility in operation (reliability)
- To prevent pollution of the environment.
To prevent danger
Maintenance for safety may be carried out to meet common law requirements and legal requirements. The common law requirements imply a general duty of care to other persons and their livestock, property, etc.
Legal requirements are those where there are stipulations in the legislation for maintenance. In the Electricity at Work Regulations (EWR), the requirement is phrased as follows:
‘As may be necessary to prevent danger, all systems shall be maintained so as to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, such danger.’ (Regulation 4(2)).
The requirement here is to maintain the system (including equipment) so as to prevent danger, and this may be achieved by carrying out a maintenance activity. In general, equipment cannot be kept in a safe condition without actually being maintained. Normally it is necessary to inspect and/or test a system to determine if maintenance (including repairs) is necessary. It is also likely to be necessary to monitor the effectiveness of maintenance procedures by keeping and analysing records.
To reduce unit cost and to keep a facility in operation (reliability)
The issues concern minimising business costs and maximising income. Maintenance carried out to reduce the cost of an enterprise would include action taken to reduce or avoid:
a) The cost of failure of plant or equipment – repair costs;
b) The cost of loss of production – revenue costs;
c) The cost of loss of service – revenue and goodwill.
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