IR 4.0 Applications in Power Plant Maintenance – A Review

Abstract

The application of IR4.0 solutions in power plant maintenance can provide various benefits to power plant managers and personnel to make better decisions that enable them to improve the reliability and availability of the plant. This paper reviews the three key aspects of IR4.0 which may be applicable to power plant maintenance which are: anomaly detection using ML, condition monitoring using IoT, and enhancing decisions using data analytics. Firstly, ML algorithms can effectively detect anomalies in key parameters of plants to detect abnormalities and forewarn maintenance teams of such issues. Next, condition monitoring using IoT enables real-time monitoring of the vibration of rotational equipment such as motors and pumps by connecting sensors with the edge or cloud. Last but not the least, data analytics is able to enhance decisions made by ML and IoT. It is also seen that some applications of other industries are also applicable to power plants as plants are made of various equipment which may be common with other industries. It is concluded that IR4.0 can offer robust solutions to various challenges faced by power plant maintenance teams.