APPLICATION OF RBM TO HIMEJI LNG RECEIVING TERMINAL AND THE EFFECTIVENESS IN MAINTENANCE COST REDUCTION

摘要

This paper describes the Risk-Based Maintenance (RBM) system we developed to significantly reduce maintenance costs at LNG terminals while maintaining their outstanding reliability. Reported as well are applications of the RBM system at Kansai Electric Power's Himeji LNG receiving terminal and its performance in terms of cost reduction. RBM is a well-known technique used to optimize inspection standard based on the "significance of risks" associated with component failures. Its application at LNG terminals, however, has been difficult because their complex systems, comprising a variety of components, make detailed risk assessment on all components inefficient and even practically impossible. Therefore, we developed efficient risk assessment procedures optimized to apply RBM on complex systems at large plants. Extreme reliability is the most essential consideration at Kansai Electric Power's Himeji LNG terminal because it continuously supplies gas to adjacent fossil power plants (eight units; total capacity: 4 GW) and other customers. However, deregulation of the electric power industry in 2000 has imposed significant cost reduction pressure on electric utilities to stay competitive. Responding to the tectonic plate shift-like changes in the industry, we developed an innovative cost reduction technique based on Risk-Based Maintenance while maintaining equipment reliability. This method performed well at our thermal power plants by reducing maintenance costs to half the previous levels. This success led us to apply the method at Kansai Electric Power's LNG terminal.