Operations & Maintenance

Providing a wide range of engineering products across multiple services and energy related markets

Why Operations & Maintenance?

Effective O&M is one of the most cost-effective methods for ensuring reliability, safety, and energy efficiency. Inadequate maintenance of energy-using systems is a major cause of energy waste in both the Federal Government and the private sector. Energy losses from steam, water and air leaks, uninsulated lines, maladjusted or inoperable controls, and other losses from poor maintenance are often considerable. Good maintenance practices can generate substantial energy savings and should be considered a resource. Moreover, improvements to facility maintenance programs can often be accomplished immediately and at a relatively low cost.

Operations & Maintenance - Definition

An activity necessary to keep an asset functioning as designed during its operations and maintenance phase of a project. Maintenance costs include costs needed to sustain an IT asset at the current capability and performance levels including corrective hardware/software, voice and data communications maintenance, replacement of damaged or obsolete IT equipment, and associated overhead costs. Examples of maintenance projects include operating system upgrades, technology refreshes, and security patch implementations.

Work required to preserve system equipment and property in a condition suitable for its designated purpose including inspection, adjustment, lubrication, cleaning, and selective part replacement of components. It includes preventive and predictive maintenance.

a. Predictive Maintenance (PrM). Those activities involving continuous or periodic monitoring and diagnosis to forecast component degradation or anticipate failure so that “as needed” maintenance can be scheduled.

b. Preventive Maintenance (PM). Those periodic and planned actions taken to maintain a piece of equipment within design operating conditions, maintain its service life, and performed before or to prevent equipment failure.

c. Maintenance work and costs do not include the following.

Regularly scheduled janitorial work such as cleaning and preserving facilities and equipment.
Work performed in relocating or installing partitions, office furniture, and other associated activities.
Work usually associated with the removal, moving, and placement of equipment.
Work aimed at expanding the capacity of an asset or otherwise upgrading it to serve needs different from or significantly greater than those originally intended.
Improvement work performed directly by in-house workers or in support of construction contractors accomplishing an improvement.
Work performed on special projects not directly in support of maintenance or construction.

O&M Potential, Energy Savings, and Beyond

It has been estimated that O&M programs targeting energy efficiency can save 5% to 20% on energy bills without a significant capital investment. From small to large sites, these savings can represent thousands to hundreds-of-thousands of dollars each year, and many can be achieved with minimal cash outlays.

The need for effective building O&M has shown over time, the performance of a building (and its components) will eventually degrade. O&M provides the additional benefit of reduced building (energy) operating costs resulting from effectively maintaining mechanical and electrical equipment (e.g., lighting; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning [HVAC]; controls; and on-site energy generation).

Beyond the potential for significant cost and energy/resource savings, an O&M program operating at its peak operational efficiency has many other important implications.

Operations & Maintenance Values

A well-functioning O&M program is a safe O&M program. Equipment is maintained properly mitigating any potential hazard arising from deferred maintenance.

Properly performed O&M ensures that the design life expectancy of equipment will be achieved, and in some cases exceeded. Conversely, the costs associated with early equipment failure are usually not budgeted for and often come at the expense of other planned O&M activities.

An effective O&M program more easily complies with Federal legislation such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act as well as expected carbon management legislation.

A well functioning O&M program is not always answering complaints, rather, it is proactive in its response and corrects situations before they become problems. This model minimizes callbacks and keeps occupants satisfied while allowing more time for scheduled maintenance.

O&M measures cost approximately 20 times less and achieve roughly the same energy savings as retrofit measures.