Aging Electrical Infrastructure: Challenges and Solutions

As your facility's electrical infrastructure ages, you may start to notice problems.

You may begin to see that old equipment fails more frequently. Even if it’s not a catastrophic failure, it often requires more frequent repairs or restoration.

Outdated equipment is often not the most efficient way to complete a process. You may be experiencing higher heat losses or reduced accuracy in your processes.

Aging electrical components are a concern for many reasons. We’ll look at how this can affect your facility and team, and offer some ideas on how to start addressing the impacts of aging systems.

 
Why is Aging Infrastructure a Problem?

You may see that the electrical equipment around your facility is aging, but why does it matter? As this equipment ages, you’ll find that it begins to impact the safety, reliability, efficiency, and viability of your operations.

Safety Risks

If electrical components are unpredictable, they are not safe. As components age, their risk of dangerous failure increases.

Old capacitors are at risk of exploding due to hardened electrolytic gel. Old wires and connections can become loose and cause arc flashes. Worn-out insulation and enclosures may not protect your team as they should.

The risks of dangerous failures increase over time if you do not conduct regular inspections and preventative maintenance. Even if you do, all electrical equipment has a limit on how long it can be safely operated.

Downtime

Whether you are a food packaging facility, a water plant, or a mining operation, downtime is a problem. If your processes are not running when they should be, you are losing money.

When unexpected downtime becomes more frequent and begins to affect your ability to deliver to stakeholders, your reputation among your clients and those you serve takes a hit.

Increased Costs

The more often your equipment is down, the more frequently it needs to be repaired or replaced. When it unexpectedly fails, you are often stuck paying rush fees for orders or expedited labor costs, meaning expenses quickly add up.

These costs can affect both your operational and capital budgets as you look for ways to get up and running again. This impacts not only your immediate budget but may also reduce the number of future projects you want to undertake as you’re busy putting out fires.

Reduced Efficiency and Other Benefits

Many parts of your electrical infrastructure exist to provide benefits. VFDs can save energy, capacitors can increase power factor, and generators can improve reliability and uptime.

If this equipment fails or is inefficient, you begin to lose those benefits. You might not even notice the loss at first, as your process continues to run.

For example, some VFDs come with a bypass, so if they fail, you can continue running the motor at 100% speed. You may be running on bypass and keeping your process going, but you might not realize that you’ve lost all the energy efficiency that was saving you money on your electricity bill. Your processes are still running, but now they’re more expensive to operate.

Compliance Issues

Many industries have rules, standards, and policies they are required to maintain. Whether they come from a government agency, a third-party organization, or your internal policy, equipment failure or improper operation can result in non-compliance.

One wastewater client we worked with faced this exact problem. When one of their VFDs or generators failed, they risked losing control over water flow and spilling contaminated water into a nearby river, which would result in huge fines from the EPA. Having reliable, efficient equipment was a necessity for them.

How Do I Solve the Problem of Aging Infrastructure?

Every facility will eventually face issues with aging equipment. While there are many types of electrical equipment, there are a few key things you can do to address this problem across the board.

Preventative Maintenance

Preventative maintenance is one of the best ways to identify aging infrastructure and begin forming a plan. Proactive maintenance allows you to inspect equipment, identify issues, perform proactive repairs, and keep equipment in the best possible condition.

Proper preventative maintenance requires investment in your on-site team or finding a reliable contractor, but it pays off in the number of problems you avoid.

Critical Spare Parts Plan

Having a plan for which equipment needs spares, how many spare parts to stock, and how to prepare and access them is crucial. This means that even if you have issues with aging infrastructure, they can be quickly addressed.

Having the right spare parts and a plan for them helps you avoid making hasty decisions. You can get up and running and then evaluate your options, which often saves you money in the long run.

Upgrades and Modernization

Not all equipment ages at the same rate. Capacitors typically have a lifespan of 5-7 years, while VFDs are expected to last 10-12 years. Instead of running some parts for too long or replacing entire systems, look at targeted upgrades and modernization. You may only need to replace the VFD and not the entire MCC, which can help save money and reduce downtime.