Last year, the plant was forced to shut down for several months due to COVID-19 issues, including the unavailability of key components and materials.

Last week, a large gear assembly failed. Post-failure examination showed severe degradation of the gear oil, including a high moisture content. Apparently during the shutdown, temperatures fluctuated, causing condensation, and the unit never got up to operating temperature to dry out while idle all those months.

Now the plant manager has asked you if there is some similar surprise in store for electrical equipment. During the shutdown, there wasn’t a maintenance effort. No cable testing or other work that would usually be done during a shutdown was performed, because the point of the shutdown initially was to keep people apart. Where do you start?

A good first step is to conduct a thorough inspection for pest infestation. An idled plant is a target for such a thing. If you find a nest, urine tracks, or other evidence of infestation but don’t see the critters, that doesn’t mean the problem is solved. They may have fled with the return of people, but any damage they did stayed behind.

While the plant is running, you should conduct a:

• Detailed thermographic inspection of all switchgear and connection panels.
• Vibration signature analysis on each large (defined relative to what motors you have) motor. Given what happened with the gear assembly, you will find problems here.
• Power quality analysis.

Tell the plant manager that to definitively answer his question, you will need to bring in a qualified testing firm during a shutdown.