WEGrid technologies help in preventive maintenance

Domestic solar and wind solutions manufacturing enhances equipment durability, minimises downtime, and reduces safety risks by enabling real-time monitoring and preventive maintenance.

As the manufacturing sector has been continually experiencing a boom over the past few years, the energy sector in India has lagged in no way. It has rather become an enabler of the country’s economic, industrial, and sustainable development. With an impressive growth of industries across India, the demand and consumption of electricity continue to rise. This, in turn, is leading to an increasing burden on technologies like Preventive Maintenance that manage these aspects.

Preventive maintenance and the Indian energy sector

The energy sector in India involves the generation, use, distribution, and management of both human-made and naturally available forms of energy, such as oil, gases, renewable power sources, and others. These energy resources are very sensitive and need constant supervision to check their effectiveness. This is where preventive maintenance comes into play.

Below are some of the key ways preventive maintenance helps safeguard the Indian energy sector.

Minimising downtime: The energy sector works around the clock, and therefore, any disruption may result in power blackouts, system stoppage, and other losses. Using preventive maintenance tools can help control these adverse occurrences before they happen and minimise drastic breakdowns that may occur due to power failure.

Enhanced equipment durability: Early detection of equipment performance can help enhance its working life. Since investments in assets like transformers, substations, circuit breakers, and pipes are high, ensuring their long-term performance and durability is essential.

Improved productivity: With preventive maintenance, it becomes easier to pre-identify any type of leakage or other issues in the pipeline or other infrastructure. If the identified issues are not handled on time, they can lead to high costs and deterioration of the environment. Therefore, it is vital to ensure that all the products are monitored accurately to continue functioning smoothly and not lead to any wastage.

Minimised safety risk: There is a high chance that situations will arise in the energy sector that are fatal to people. But with preventive maintenance or similar technology, it is possible to minimise this risk and dangerous conditions.

WEGrid technologies support preventive maintenance

With the evolving technologies, WIKA India has also been upgrading the level of technical support provided to customers—both in terms of solutions and products. WIKA’s WEGrid technology contains several advanced solutions that can address many issues in the energy industry.

A few ways in which WEGrid technologies support preventive maintenance are:

Real-time monitoring: WIKA’s WEGrid technology products, like gas density monitors, enable real-time monitoring of gas pressure, temperature, and moisture in different products. These can also track any minor signs of equipment degradation. This, in turn, helps the maintenance teams take relevant steps and correct any type of fault in the system. For instance, WIKA’s WEGrid sensors check the SF6 gas and provide signals to operators to check the gases and prevent any chances of equipment failure.

Predictive maintenance: WEGrid technology makes improving product performance and reliability easier. Product maintenance can also be scheduled before failure occurs, improving asset availability and, therefore, minimising the cost of maintenance.

Minimal downtime: WEGrid solutions significantly reduce the use of manual inspections. This is because real-time monitoring helps minimise equipment downtime, enabling easier product maintenance with less interruption.

Enhanced safety: With WEGrid technologies, maintenance professionals can address any forthcoming dangerous situations, such as gas leakage or high temperatures, that, if not appropriately managed, can lead to a disaster. The technology also helps to maintain equipment in proper shape, which, in turn, helps minimise accidents and improves adherence to safety measures.

Low maintenance cost: WEGrid technologies can help the energy sector adopt a preventive maintenance mode. This helps minimise overall maintenance costs and time as it becomes easier to avoid major situations that require costly repairs. For example, WIKA’s advanced WEGrid solutions for gas-insulated equipment, such as IoT-enabled sensors and real-time data analytics, guarantee optimal gas management, reduce SF6 gas leaks, and extend the product lifespan.

The need to maintain the standards of India’s energy sector is rising, as this affects the efficiency of other sectors. It is important to understand that the power generation infrastructure and use of renewable energy sources will continue to grow, so the assets must be safeguarded. WIKA’s technologies for the power sector, like WEGrid, help its customers become more proficient, collect real-time data, and ensure improved safety at lower costs.

Authored by: Gaurav Bawa, Senior Vice President- WIKA India