EPRI Streamlined reliability-based maintenance method

This article, aimed at readers with a basic knowledge of industrial maintenance and Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), presents the method developed by the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) in the USA for the implementation of a simplified reliability-centered maintenance method called Streamlined Reliability Centered Maintenance (SCRM) applicable to power generation units (nuclear, conventional thermal or hydraulic). In this article, the symbol RCM will be used instead of MBF.

EPRI's motivation for developing a simplified RCM method was based on the observation that the application of the method developed by Nowlan and Heap in 1978 was too restrictive and required too much time and human resources for operators.

The first section presents the origins of the approach, which stems from EPRI's desire to make available to the various operators of power generation plants a simplified reliability-based maintenance method that largely respects the fundamental concepts of the original RCM.

The second section presents the steps involved in drawing up an SCRM maintenance program, highlighting the similarities and differences with the RCM method developed by Nowlan and Heap. In particular, it presents the content of the frameworks developed for each type of component, with a view to simplifying the selection of maintenance task categories and their implementation intervals.

To illustrate the content of a maintenance study based on SRCM, the case of the boiler water supply system of a coal-fired power plant is dealt with in the third section. The maintenance program for the water supply pumps is developed in detail. In view of the criticisms levelled at SCRM by advocates of RCM as defined by its founders Nowlan and Heap, a comparative review of the advantages and disadvantages of SCRM is provided in the fourth section.

In conclusion, recommendations will also be made for readers wishing to implement SRCM, as well as on adaptations that have emerged since the late 2000s.