Planning of prescriptive maintenance types for generator with fuzzy logic-based genetic algorithm in a hydroelectric power plant

The move to predictive and prescriptive maintenance underlines the need for cost-effective methods to monitoring degradation and predicting failures. It is in hydroelectric power plants (HPPs) where the most powerful and unique techniques of this evolution were observed. The final premise of this transition is the need to improve the decision-making process for planning activities in the Prescriptive Maintenance Planning (MP). This encourages the use of fuzzy set theory in process management. Although there are many studies on MP in the literature, these studies do not fully reflect the real life as they ignore potential schedule delays and the indirect impact of sustainable strategy on revenues. Therefore, in the first stage of this study, it is aimed to weight the maintenance types (MTs) on a plant basis for the generator, which is the most critical system of the pumped storage HPP, and in the second stage, it is aimed to create MPs that minimize delays due to system shutdowns with weighted MTs. For this purpose, in the first stage, the MTs for the HPP were weighted by AHP-TOPSIS combination augmented with Pythagorean fuzzy numbers, and in the second stage, a Genetic Algorithm model was designed for the problem of coordinating maintenance durations and deadlines in addition to these weights. Averaged over 50 iterations, the average number of delayed MPs is 142.55, indicating that the algorithm is successful in reducing delayed MPs, while the average weighted delay value is 172.85, indicating that more work is needed in terms of weighted delay.

Automated summary

The move to predictive and prescriptive maintenance requires cost-effective methods for monitoring degradation and predicting failures. Hydroelectric power plants are where the most powerful and unique techniques of this evolution are observed. The use of fuzzy set theory in process management is encouraged to improve the decision-making process for planning activities in Prescriptive Maintenance Planning (MP). However, existing studies often overlook potential schedule delays and the indirect impact of sustainable strategy on revenues.