Sandia National Laboratories: Maintenance Plan Evaluation for National Solar Thermal Test Facility

Discipline: IEMS

Advisor: Mansooreh Mollaghasemi

As is, the solar tower and heliostat field at Sandia's National Solar Thermal Test Facility do not have a sustainable maintenance plan to keep equipment up. Their maintenance strategy is reactive, and most time is spent on inspections. This leads to downtime because of lack of manpower to fix all issues. There is room for improvement to implement predictive maintenance and not check heliostats constantly. This project will create a smarter maintenance plan that eliminates problems before they occur. The facility managers are the stakeholders that need it. The whole facility depends on these heliostats running for thermal testing. The system will work by using Key Performance Indicators to find critical parts in the failure modes. With this, predictive tools can be created to make a clear maintenance schedule that boosts efficiency and uptime. This plan is better than what’s available because it improves efficiency for the operators fixing heliostats, allowing them to work more effectively. Possible applications include expanding to other renewable energy facilities worldwide as well as Sandia's seven other test facilities. Other selling points are safety, cost savings, support for innovation, and national impact.

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