ABSTRACT
The consequence of electric power outage goes beyond the frustration experienced. Electric power outage could lead to financial losses, injuries and sometimes death especially when it interferes with the elements of daily utility like the powered elevators in tower and life-saving equipment in the hospitals. It is worthy of note that maintaining a steady and reliable power supply is important for the smooth running and development of any nation. Among the many challenges being faced in many developing countries like Nigeria, is the availability of reliable power supply. Hence, some industries have delved into power generation to carter for their daily utility demand, through the establishment of IPPs. These power plants are also face with dependability issues.
In this study, an assessment of the dependability of an independent power plant (IPP) at Presco Plc over a three years period (2020 – 2022) was conducted. This is to checkmate how frequently faults/outages occur. The primary objective is to carryout RAMS analysis of the power plant through the use of the commonly used reliability distribution indexes, such as quantitative techniques /statistical tools, so that modification and improvement can be done to enhance the dependability of the power plant. Also, to carry out an assessment on availability and quality of raw material used by the power plant, through the use of statistical tools and existing literature.
Historical data were obtained from the biomass generating plant at Presco Plc; the collated data were used to evaluate the overall performance of the power plant. The power plant availability for the different months of the years under review were display with an histogram chart, showing the highest record in the month of November 2020, while the overall availability performance was 88.28 %. The power plant reliability and maintainability were 98.52% and 95.24% respectively. Hence, we can therefore conclude based on result from the investigated data that the biomass power plant of Presco oil has sufficient raw material for its day to day operation, and the power plant is dependable without the exclusion of breakdown.
