Risk-Based Inspection for Smart Asset Management Decision Making on Major Rotating Equipment

Asset management strategies for industrial process plants and utilities are based on inspection and test programs to periodically evaluate the progression of life consumption. A common shortcoming of such plans is that they are static and offer little flexibility for adaptation based on the actual operating experience. Data to improve these asset management plans is available from a variety of sources. Consolidating the data from these different sources is challenging but represents an opportunity for smart service providers to improve their offering and for operators to increase their production in a safe and reliable manner. Over the years, General Electric (GE) has been applying a variety of asset management technologies to improve power plant life and performance for their customers. These methods consider various inputs including equipment design knowledge, asset condition assessed from real-time monitoring and inspection data, and lessons learned from repairing, operating and maintaining thousands of assets globally. Risk-based inspection (RBI) represents a next generation of inspection and life management approaches. RBI is a consistent decision-making technique, which uses risk as a proxy for “asset condition,” to manage the scope and frequency for the different activities in an asset life plan. This paper shows how GE has used RBI to perform risk-based health and life assessments for steam turbines and generators in power plants. The method has been used on several steam power plants around the world, to help operators of ageing steam plants make the right decisions to successfully navigate the global energy transition.