ABSTRACT
The opening of the electricity market has forced the producers to be more competitive by reacting promptly and reliably to the demand/offer dynamics. Success in this challenge relies also on efficient maintenance policies, which include ordinary maintenance, unexpected maintenance and restoration and which have a large impact on the plant performance and production costs. The maintenance strategy must consider various options of the type of maintenance plan (corrective, preventive, opportunistic), the type and timing of maintenance tasks (overhaul, monitoring, scheduled replacements, etc.), the maintenance echelon (repair on site or in workshop) etc., under various, and typically conflicting, criteria which come into play, e.g. availability, safety and costs.
