WHILST South Africans are frustrated with having to contend with hours of loadshedding, FM Solutions, (established in 2002) says these long periods of power outages offer the ideal opportunity to test the capacity of built-in systems and to perform much needed inspections, maintenance and repair jobs that require a complete shutdown of the facility.
“Shutting off the main electricity supply to a building can be disruptive for most organisations – particularly those who run 24/7 operations. It is an important, yet complicated project that needs to be carefully managed and coordinated in order to limit disruptions and “downtime” as much as possible. For this reason, many companies avoid check-ups because of systems reliance and disruption to business,” explains Lydia Hendricks, Business Development Director at FM Solutions.
Lydia provides insights into the most frequently asked questions relating to complete facility shutdowns:
- How often must a complete facility shutdown typically take place?
Medium Voltage (MV) Switchgear and transformer upgrades are the only services that would require a full shutdown to affect maintenance upgrade and major repairs. A complete facility shutdown is not necessarily to affect maintenance but is advisable to test the critical interconnected systems that serve the building. During this time, the equipment capacity should be tested, and the related maintenance interventions identified to ensure the ongoing stability and safety of the building systems – necessary in the event of total blackouts or fire in a building.
Other typical systems that should be tested during facility shutdowns include fire systems, lifts, emergency lighting, back-up power capacity, HVAC extract system to name a few. Most assets have guarantees and warrantees that stipulate maintenance conditions and frequency of maintenance servicing to ensure its reliability and longevity. It is vital for these maintenance and servicing tasks to be done in order to uphold the terms of the guarantee.
Some of these assets often form part of (or are interdependent with) other critical systems that aid the overall safe function of a building. For example, smoke detectors are linked to a fire panel and a Building Management System that send warnings when emergency intervention is required. Failure to service and test the links to this panel could result in critical communication being compromised and ultimately lack of response to these alarms would result in serious losses if not attended to.
Reinstating systems when contractors attend to their side of maintenance is often the main reason for system failure and in most cases found after an incident has occurred.
- What are some of the safety requirements that need to be taken into consideration (and be complied with) during such maintenance upgrades?
Risk Assessments and Safety Task Analysis should be a standard process in place that should be enforced when embarking on a full shutdown of the power. Typical risks linked to a shutdown are that the entire building will be in complete darkness and therefore synchronising and step-controlling the process with contractors responsible is important to ensure the safety of the teams responsible for the tests.
Testing fire systems should include release of escape doors and their operation to ensure safe evacuation. For the same reason, a company’s security staff (technical and non-technical) should be reminded to also regularly check that these automatic doors are open for evacuation.
- How does FM Solutions go about preparing for a planned shut-down to perform the necessary upgrades, repairs of maintenance at a client’s facility?
Our safety systems support these activities. Furthermore, we have set procedures for such documented and critical systems highlighted and scheduled right from the inception of contractor engagement. We execute and implement maintenance programmes in accordance with project management principles and measure and manage all risks on behalf of a vast amount of clients we provide this service for. In agreement with our client, these tests are planned, communicated and executed.
Conclusion:
The practice of shutdowns is often ignored because it can be disruptive as it comes at cost of service provider time and core business down-time. However, the value of doing these shutdowns is negligible if you consider the damage that can be caused if important maintenance tasks are not regularly performed (the damage caused at Parliament’s House of Assembly after a fire extinguishing system failed to kick in timeously, is a sad and telling example).
FM Solutions has the expertise and experience to coordinate and manage complete facility or system shutdowns, keeping cost and disruptions to a minimum. We develop an affordable and manageable preventative maintenance plan for each client, whilst also developing fit-for-purpose rectification plans to address high risk maintenance – based on the findings of the shutdown. We partner with our clients by assisting them with life-cycle costing and valuable data for a streamlined maintenance budget.
For more information, visit www.fm-solutions.co.za
