About Lord Consulting

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The Company - An Introduction:

Established in 1996, LORD Consulting plays a pivotal role in the Electrical and Power Industries throughout Australasia. We operate primarily in Australia and New Zealand but are happy to assist clients internationally.

Founder and CEO, Mr Trevor Lord, is a tertiary-qualified electrical engineer and third generation in his family as a service provider to the electrical and power industries.
The Company is an active Collective Member of Cigre and a regular attendee at major Industry events internationally, ensuring currency and accuracy of its advice and guidance.
LORD Consulting offers the Australasian power industry a unique level of service in quality and diversity, including:

• Development, review, and implementation of power asset management policies, specifications, and practices.
• Preparation of electrical infrastructure Asset Management Plans to the Internationally-recognised PAS-55 asset management standard, and assisting with developing strategies and processes for their successful implementation as required.
• Assistance in establishing both on-line monitoring and condition-based maintenance philosophies.
• Environmental compliance in the use of Power Industry technologies, particularly SF6 gas
• Preparation and review of tender specifications.
• Training of power industry technicians in a comprehensive range of disciplines.
• Industry forums, Conferences, and regular news disseminations to promote and develop the highest possible standards of Industry practice.
• Assistance with client business and marketing development strategies to maximise the profit and / or goal potential of LORD services.
  

Our Vision:

For the Australasian power industry to achieve , through our expertise and commitment to a ‘total solutions’ industry-focussed service, an internationally enviable level of “best practice” in asset reliability, longevity, safety, environmental compliance, and realised stakeholder expectations.

Our Focus:

LORD Consulting works closely with clients and customers at all levels to ensure that both their desired outcomes and organisational goals are achieved. Strategic issues variously assessed as part of the delivery process include: corporate policy on reliability and performance issues in that regard; maintenance philosophies, practices and policies adopted; priorities identified by client and their stakeholders; budget issues; equipment resource; personnel training levels and application proficiency; and associated client marketing / business development matters.

Training Programmes:

LORD Consulting is committed to providing the best available training and commissioning support for all our services. Training is focused on meeting the client’s particular business objective for that service or product. Training programmes are tailored to the client’s circumstances and can be provided on site or in other facilities as required. Assessment and Certificates of Competency are often an integral part of our training programmes. We also provide regular industry forums to promote new ideas and a better standard of, and commitment to, industry best practice.

Consultancy Services:

LORD Consulting draws from a retained base of internationally-recognised consultants in the field of practical power industry network asset management. Our consultants are authorities in policy formulation, corporate strategic vision, asset management to world best practice, environmental management in the power sector context, project management, process audit, training, planning, technical assistance, technical documentation, and implementation of maintenance programmes.

In-house developed intellectual property also aids in the innovations applied to asset management processes proposed.
Essentially, our main goal is to deliver an appropriately-conceived asset management environment focussed on minimising the occurrences of unwarranted ‘surprises’ arising from apparent sudden changes in asset status.

In the case of power network asset maintenance-related consultancies, a particular specialty is the provision of processes which inherently offer the least possible invasive impact to the plant under test in the course of their implementation.

We recognise the constraints of limited budgets and the impact of change on the operating environment at both a personal and technical level, working with our clients in a sensitive and professional manner to ensure the best possible outcomes.

All consultancies are, wherever possible, delivered as priced packages whose outcomes and deliverables are defined and itemised.

Consultancy services offered in the areas of expertise outlined below include (but are not limited to):

• Preparation, and peer review, to PAS-55 of Asset Management Plans for MV and HV assets
• Implementation of appropriate Asset Management processes
• Gap analysis studies against ‘best practice’
• Advice on most economic means of upgrading current maintenance practice
• Prioritisation of maintenance and monitoring programmes to meet stakeholder expectations
• Training of staff to obtain the best possible outcomes in asset management techniques
• Formal condition reports of power system plant based upon supplied ( or determined ) information
• Advice on appropriate asset condition assessment techniques to meet desired corporate of strategic outcomes
• Incident or failure investigations on power systems assets
• Environmental and ‘carbon footprint’ minimisation techniques, specialising in SF6 gas
• Safety issues when working near energised power systems assets.

Areas of expertise in the management of MV and HV power assets include (but by no means limited to):

• Power cables (best practice in specification, laying, commissioning, fault location, tracing and location, and condition assessment).
• Transformers (best practice in life managment and condition assessment techniques)
• Switchgear, all types (best practice in life managment and condition assessment techniques)
• Batteries (best practice in life management and condition assessment techniques)
• Protection
• MV and HV insulators (best practice in life management and condition assessment techniques)
• Metering Concepts (smart and conventional)
• Generator and Large Motor management
• Power Quality
• Power System asset failure mechanisms

Technologies in which LORD specialises include:

• On-line monitoring and condition assessment for all power assets
• Off-line testing, condition assessment, and fault-finding for all power assets
• Partial Discharge (on and off-line)
• Thermography
• Corona and corona management
• SF6 gas management
• Insulating oil management
• Pole management
• Insulator inspection
• Animal deterrents near MV plant
• MV and HV pressure testing
• Protection
• Power Quality
• Earthing system assessment

 

Asset Management Services Statement

• Lord Consulting has been active in power system asset condition monitoring for over 10 years. A good knowledge of the failure mechanisms that can impact assets as they age, together with keeping abreast of present day state-of-the-art in both off-line and on-line asset condition monitoring practices and system worldwide, has positioned the company well for assisting asset owners with the current movement toward raising the quality level of power infrastructure management.
• The European PAS55 initiative represents a credible and timely addition to the field of physical asset management. Lead by the UK Institute of Asset Management (IAM) in conjunction with a consortium of major European assets owners and other interested parties, this “publicly available specification” is currently supported by the British Standard Institution (BSI) and came into effect on April 30, 2004. PAS55 has won converts for the systematic and pragmatic way it has addressed the complex issues asset management organisations grapple with striving to manage aging public infrastructure while also sustainably meeting increasingly strict stakeholder expectations.
• PAS55 is currently a generic specification, looking at all the factors that impact the quality of asset management. It takes a risk-centric view, balancing the high expectations of users with the reality of maintaining large essential service networks (such as power systems, railways, water services, roading, freight, etc). It covers both the management of the physical assets, together with the management issues from an organisational viewpoint.
• Lord Consulting takes a low key, practical and constructive approach to assisting with introducing an organisation to the PAS55 philosophy. This would start with a review of the organisation’s operational and maintenance practices for all asset classes, looking at relevant combinations of asset information registers, maintenance schedules, intervention intervals and maintenance procedures, condition maintenance criteria, test results recording and trend analysis, spares, aged profiles, handling of known issues, and the status of emergency response plans and an ability to execute them.
• This would then be followed with a gap analysis, looking taking the information gathered about maintenance practices and comparing this against best industry practice for this asset type. This would typically be independently peer reviewed to ensure the resulting advice was as timely and robust as possible. From this gap analysis would follow recommendations or suggested actions as to how the gap may be systematically reduced to a practical minimum, given the specific circumstances of the assets and organisation concerned.
• The organisational “work flow” can also be studied and commented on as required. Typically, asset management incorporates three interconnected management work loops:

  1. the operational/maintenance (or “business as usual”) work loop;
  2. the issue resolution ( of “risk assessment and mitigation”) work loop;
  3. the planning (“growth and/or replacement”) work loop

• Lord Consulting can also review, update or create from scratch a full Asset Management Plan (AMP) taking all the above information into account and aligning this with the organisations corporate goals and objectives. This may involve running strategic planning workshops, which Lord Consulting can design and lead as required to help identify the issues facing the organisation and how the management feel these should be handled.
• The ability of an organisation to implement their AMP can depend on the organisational structure and its effectiveness. Sometimes the existing structure is unsuited to managing assets collectively in a risk-centric manner, and if this is the case suggestions can be crafted as to how the management structure might be improved for a more cohesive and sustainable outcome.
  Organisations can inadvertently become overly dependent on external contractors, outsourcing more of their core intellectual property (IP) than would normally be prudent. This is a potentially dangerous long term situation, and this can be identified and plans draw up for restoring an appropriate internal/external balance.
• The PAS55 asset management review methodology can be specifically designed and applied to permit the same management processes to be applied across a number of different asset classes. This can lead to considerable economies of scale in planning, monitoring, risk register maintenance and other generic activities common to all asset types.
• Lord Consulting has a strategic working alliance with the Woodhouse Partnership in the UK, leaders in the field of assisting asset owners and operators in this area. Mr John Woodhouse was the project chairman of the coordinating and drafting group responsible for bringing together the PAS55 specification.
• Asset management is a complex and demanding discipline, difficult for any organisation to do in isolation. This applies equally to public and private operators of high-voltage power systems, any of whom can benefit from benchmarking themselves against industry best practice. Given the increasingly high dependence society now has on the smooth and trouble-free operation of large, aging power networks, and the increasing pressure to have independent audits undertaken of how well they are being managed, the benefits of applying the PAS55 philosophy are considerable.

August 2008