Maintenance Strategy Optimization of a Coal-Fired Power Plant Cooling Tower through Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets

Determining the ideal size of maintenance staff is a daunting task, especially in the operation of large and complex mechanical systems such as thermal power plants. On the one hand, a significant investment in maintenance is necessary to maintain the availability of the system. On the other hand, it can significantly affect the profit of the plant. Several mathematical modeling techniques have been used in many different ways to predict and improve the availability and reliability of such systems. This work uses a modeling tool called generalized stochastic Petri net (GSPN) in a new way, aiming to determine the effect that the number of maintenance teams has on the availability and performance of a coal-fired power plant cooling tower. The results obtained through the model are confronted with a thermodynamic analysis of the cooling tower that shows the influence of this system’s performance on the efficiency of the power plant. Thus, it is possible to determine the optimal size of the repair team in order to maximize the plant’s performance with the least possible investment in maintenance personnel.