Re-Commissioning Hotel Plant & Equipment

You’re the Engineer or Maintenance Manager of a large resort facility or hotel, and the time has come to restart or reopen. Your assets have been shut down and in mothballs for some time now. We’re talking for at least a month. Due to the current situation, your best-laid maintenance plans have gone out the window. All you and your maintenance team could do was do the basics when this started and mothball the site. Back when you put it into mothballs, you had limited time and resources and were rushing to complete the mothballing process. Time was of the essence to reduce the impact on the business.

You’re skeptical that your hotel assets are going to restart without issues arising. You know your plant and equipment, and you know you’ve maintained your asset to the best of your and your team’s ability within the confines of the resources and financial levels that you’ve been provided. You’re also keenly aware of the gremlins and quirks that your asset has had over the years. To add complexity, you’ve never had the asset shut down for this long and in this physical climate.

You also have the added complexity of potential risks due to the environment in which the equipment resides. Salty coastal conditions can build up rust, and dry arid conditions can generate significant dust within systems. So not only will you have to follow all OEM recommendations to restart the asset, but you will also have to clean everything within an inch of its life to ensure no damage to systems during the restart.

Depending on where you are in the world, there are going to be some things that will influence and affect the re-commissioning of the asset, so here are some tips and suggestions to achieve successful re-commissioning of any asset.

Timing is Everything

Rushing the process is one of the biggest mistakes you can make when re-commissioning assets. If your system has been purged of its natural material or is dry, rushing to reinstate the fluid or failing to effectively remove the protective material it was coated in may cause you more issues in the long run. Slowly purge lines of air or stabilising fluids, and take the time and effort to remove any protective coating or material from the asset’s surfaces.

Additionally, it also applies to the health aspects of this exercise. You must check with your local health authorities on the correct protocols. You may need to thoroughly disinfect the area before allowing your team back in to commence the re-commissioning process. Although this will add time and expense to the process, the old saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is very real. A little precaution to prevent a crisis is preferable to a lot of fixing up and cost afterwards.

By taking your time and ensuring that the re-commissioning process is done correctly, following the OEM and health authority recommendations, you are less likely to cause damage to your asset or put your people or guests at risk in the long run. I am sure we would all like to get it right the first time and get the business back up and running to generate profit, rather than have to shut down again and incur unnecessary costs from repairs or health issues.

Operating vs Performing

So, you have purged the system, cleaned off all of the protective material the asset was coated in, and removed all the mothball guards and equipment. You are ready to go, and you have followed all the OEM’s recommendations and used your knowledge of how your asset operates.

You fire everything up, and it is running, but is it performing? Before rushing off to restart and re-commission the next system, you need to double-check that the system is performing how it should. Use your previous daily readings or verify against the OEM specifics that the system is operating optimally. For example, ensure that the pump achieves its rated pressure or that the heat exchanger achieves proper temperature levels. The system may appear operational, but there is a difference between running and performing.

Risky Business

As with any complex asset or large hotel, it has gremlins; hopefully, you are already aware of where they are. But your asset has been shut down for some time now, and you’re not confident that it will not develop new gremlins somewhere. So, how do you combat these gremlins and ensure that you’re not shut back down again as soon as you start back up?

Having experience in maintenance management and understanding your facility or site, you’re keenly aware that it develops a personality. Having personnel who know and understand its workings will be a great benefit. To combat the potential gremlins from developing, you may want to adjust your current maintenance plan and frequency to pay more attention to that system or equipment in the interim to ensure that it settles down and operates correctly.

Time Will Tell

Whenever you mothball an asset, there are inherent risks in bringing it back online without causing damage or problems, especially if it has been in mothballs for some time. By collaborating with the people who have worked on the asset for an extended period and not rushing the process, there is a good chance that you can successfully re-commission your asset with minimal issues. So, do it right, do it once by the book, follow all OEM recommendations, and you will have set yourself and your business up for success and the comfort of your guests.