Formation of Maintenance Specialist Groups in POWERGRID

1.0 Background: At present POWERGRID is operating & maintaining 248

Substations, more than 1,61,000 ckm of Transmission Lines and 3000
transformers & reactors. To maintain this huge system spread across the
country is a challenging job. We have to maintain the system consistently with
high availability and reliability. It is therefore essential that the manpower
maintaining these assets is well trained & experienced in all respects.

Many of our experienced site personnel have retired or are going to retire over
the next few years. This has caused a gap in the expertise level in many of the
core functional areas of POWERGRID. It is often seen that in the event of
breakdown at any of the site, the restoration work is hampered due to lack of
properly trained manpower at sites. In case of major failure of transformer at
any site, the restoration work involves dismantling work of failed unit, shifting &
pre-erection checks, installation of spare unit, oil filtration & circulation, bushing
erection, final testing, commissioning work, etc. Many of these individual
activities can be carried out in parallel but there may be constraints due to lack
of sufficient experienced manpower to carry out the specialized activity in
parallel. Another problem which has been experienced for restoration of GIS
elements wherein failed compartment has to be identified, SF6 gas to be
evacuated, healthy spare unit to be shifted from storage to the main hall, failed
unit to be replaced with healthy spare unit, gas filling, testing. Most of these
activities require supervision of OEM engineers of the GIS equipment who are
mostly based overseas. If internal expertise is developed among our engineers,
through extensive training at OEM works, then dependency on supervision of
OEM engineer can be reduced. Similarly, in case of protection retro-fitting at
any station, activities by expert teams from different stations will be beneficial
in nature and will make POWERGRID’s engineers more self-reliant.

Need for Specialist Group

One of the solutions to such kind of problems can be to supplement the existing
manpower with expert manpower available at other stations too. The pooling of
manpower will reduce the time taken for restoration, improve efficiency and
develop the existing manpower at the station. To better manage such pooling
of experts, we can identify a team of experts or Maintenance Specialist Groups
in different core functional areas who can be called upon at any time to perform
a set of tasks related to their core specialized technical areas.

Many of the site engineers engaged in the O&M activities have gathered good
technical & practical knowledge in the specialized technical areas which they
are performing regularly. This expertise needs to be identified, recognized and
honed in the proper guidance of senior experienced personnel. Given the
proper opportunity and guidance such activity shall benefit the company in the
long run. All the maintenance activities will continue to be handled by the Sub-
Station or TL maintenance team and the team of Specialists will only be
deputed to supplement the working team as per direction of RHQ-AM.
Accordingly, a set of guidelines are proposed to develop Maintenance
Specialist Group in each region to address this concern.

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 2.0 Proposal: The Maintenance Specialist Group shall be constituted for the
following specialized work area in each Region:

a. Transmission Line – ERS Erection: In case of extreme natural calamity

like cyclone, avalanche, floods, etc our Transmission Line towers can get
affected. To minimize the adverse impact on the availability due to such
incidences, Emergency Restoration System (ERS) towers are erected to
immediately restore the supply of power. The line can then later be charged
on normal tower once restoration work is completed. ERS system can also
be used extensively in cases where diversion of transmission line is
planned. ERS erection is a highly specialized job and requires expert
manpower. Keeping in view the huge asset base, it is therefore essential to
develop expertise in this area to minimize outage during extreme situations.

b. Transmission Line – Hotline Maintenance: Availability of transmission

elements is one of the major criteria for evaluating performance of
POWERGRID by various agencies. Outages on account of breakdowns and
planned & forced shutdowns reduce the availability of POWERGRID
transmission system. To minimize outages it is therefore essential that
minor maintenance work be carried out online (without shutdown) through
hotline maintenance. Although we have been using hotline maintenance
technique extensively since 1990s but there are still not many experts
available in POWERGRID. Expertise needs to be developed for the same
so that our personnel are able to carry out these activities in a safe and
efficient manner.

c. Transformer / Reactor Maintenance: POWERGRID is maintaining a

maintaining a large fleet of transformers & reactors. Since the equipment in
service are of various age groups, manufacturers and designs it is very
important to have a proper maintenance plan to ensure their healthiness. In
the event of any equipment failure, proper diagnosis of the root cause and
suitable measures for future mitigation is required. It is also required to
groom the young engineers who can gain expertise in handling the
equipment and take necessary action in case of any failure/ problem.

d. Circuit Breakers, Instrument Transformers, LAs, etc: Maintenance of

CBs, Instrument Transformers, LA, etc is a challenge owing to availability of
diverse equipment from different manufacturers in the system. Expertise is
to be developed so that problem identification & diagnosis, knowledge
sharing and rectification work can be done with the help of Original
Equipment Manufacturers (OEM).

e. Gas Insulated Sub-Stations (GIS): POWERGRID has started adopting the

GIS technology since the year 2007 and at present, 54 out of 248 (more
than 20%) of our stations are having GIS system. Many of the stations have
been recently commissioned and teething problems is often observed at
these stations. However GIS is a highly specialized work area and often
during major maintenance works services of OEM experts is required.
Formation of expert group of skilled & experienced GIS engineers will be
beneficial in GIS major maintenance & developing of maintenance
engineers.
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 f. Protection Group: It has been observed that many of the tripping at
POWERGRID stations is due to protection mal-operation. The root cause
has mostly been due to lack of knowledge or expertise of the protection
engineers at site during commissioning as well as during O&M. Many times,
these mal-operations have also been taken seriously at RPC & CERC level.
Creation of a Protection Specialist Group will help in strengthening of the
regional pool of Protection Engineers. The group can also ensure proper
commissioning of new elements or retro-fitting of old system and develop
standard procedures.

g. HVDC & SVC/STATCOM: HVDC and SVC/STATCOM technologies are

highly capital intensive technologies which have very limited expertise base
in POWERGRID. At present the number of stations with these technologies
may be less but outage of these stations will cause huge impact on
POWERGRID’s transmission system availability. Creation of a central pool
of experts at regional level is thereby crucial. However in case any Region
has only one such station, the HVDC/SVC/STATCOM experts from any
other neighboring region may be clubbed with the regional
HVDC/SVC/STATCOM experts to form a joint common expert group which
will provide opportunity for knowledge sharing.

2.1 Overall Hierarchy & Constitution: Each Region shall constitute a

specialized expert group in their respective region considering the experience
of employees in different areas. The overall hierarchy of each Maintenance
Specialist Group shall be as shown:

Regional O&M Head

TL-ERS Transformer AIS Protection GIS HVDC

Specialist Specialist Specialist Specialist Specialist Specialist Specialist
Group Group Group Group Group Group Group

The constitution of each Specialist group shall be as under:

 Each group shall constitute of at least four members with the

following tentative criterion:
o One senior Executive with experience of 10-12 years or more in
the area of expertise who will also be the mentor for the team.
o One Executive with experience of about 6-8 years in the relevant
field.
o Two Members (Executive(s)/Supervisor(s)) with experience of
about 4-6 years in their area of expertise.
o However, constitution of the group may be modified based on
field of expertise or requirement/ availability of suitable
members.
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  The members of each group shall be selected initially for a period of
three years with a possibility for extension of two years. After the
completion of the term or in case a member is no longer able to
contribute to the group due to any reason (transfer out of the region,
change in work area, etc) their continuity in the group will be reviewed
 Efforts to be made to induct new members in the Specialist Group
from time-to-time. However, some or all the members may also be
retained if felt necessary with the approval of Regional Head.
 The members shall continue to contribute from their present place of
postings or the posting as decided by the management as per
organizational requirement.
 The database of the present as well as former members of the
Maintenance Specialist Group shall be captured in SAP/ERP in
employee Bio-data along-with the name of the specialist group,
period of being member of group etc. for creation of databank of
pool of specialists and for future reference. This pool of specialists
can be utilized by CC-AM for various specialized activities across
POWERGRID as and when required.

2.2 Selection of Members: The identification of the right persons to be a member

of the Maintenance Specialist Group is imperative to the success of the
concept. To have fair selection and to give equal opportunity to all employees
of the company the following methodology is proposed:

a. Based on above philosophy and requisition of Asset Management,

Regional HR to facilitate selection of members of the group by inviting
applications of interested employees online through Internal Job Portal
available in INTRANET, to be a part of Regional Maintenance
Specialist Group.

b. An employee may also apply for more than one role in the Maintenance
Specialist Group.

c. Based on the interest received, a committee consisting of following

members may be formed to assess the interested employees
i. Regional AM Head – Committee Chairman
ii. Regional Engineering Head – Member (at least GM)
iii. Representative Member from Other Region/ CC (at least GM)
who is expert in the subject field.
iv. Regional HR Head – Member - to facilitate the selection in terms
of providing inputs on employee records, performance, etc.

d. The committee shall recommend the candidates based on their

experience profiles in the relevant group, individual potential, willingness
to learn/ contribute and past feedback. Further committee may also
recommend any other suitable candidate, as per their judgement, from
the region for the different roles.

e. The Approving Authority for the Maintenance Specialist Group shall be

Regional Head.
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 f. On approval, Regional HR shall issue order for formation of
maintenance specialist group for workgroups comprising of members
within the Region. For groups comprising members from other Regions
(e.g. in case of HVDC/SVC/STATCOM groups), the order may be
issued by Corporate HR with consent of respective Regional Heads.

2.3 Key Function Area: In addition to their respective routine works at their
individual place of posting, the Scope of work for the Maintenance Specialist
Group shall be as under:

a. The Group shall be involved/ associated in all major works of respective

area such as breakdown undertaken in the region pertaining to their area
of expertise including commissioning works at the direction of RHQ-AM.
b. The Group shall be involved in Troubleshooting and Root Cause
Analysis pertaining to their area of expertise.
c. The Group shall take initiative for coordination & implementation of new
technologies or adopting innovative practices in their field of
specialization.
d. The Group may also be involved in any work of exceptional nature
undertaken outside the Region as per advice of CC-AM.
e. The Group shall be proactively involved in grooming fresh engineers in
the Region and adding to the group so in case of transfer/ retirement,
expert group activities are not affected.
f. The Group will also be responsible for verifying the implementation of
the various CC-AM/ Engineering guidelines issued from time to time.
g. The Group will also be responsible for developing e-Learning/ Training
Modules in the subject area of their expertise.

2.4 Performance Monitoring :

a) A Nodal Authority at Corporate Asset Management will co-ordinate for

performance review of Maintenance Specialist Groups and for
performance of Inter Regional Groups (e.g. HVDC/ SVC). Further, the
Nodal Authority may have Bi-monthly ‘catch up’ meeting with the
groups for continuous engagement apart from periodic review to
enable the members of such groups work as a cohesive team at the
time of emergency.
b) Specialist Maintenance Groups shall also come up with a 6-monthly
report on major special works carried out which will be compiled and
circulated to all regions by CC- AM.
c) A Dedicated page will be created in Knowledge Portal/ AM e-
Gyaankosh to capture and maintain the details of tasks undertaken by
the Specialist Groups including root cause analysis, action taken,
lessons learnt etc and facilitating review and knowledge sharing.

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 2.5 Development of Members: CC-HRD in association with CC-AM shall
arrange for competency development of members of expert groups which
shall include the following:

a) Specialized Trainings and visits to various manufacturers from time to

time in India and abroad.
b) The members shall also be associated with factory testing works in their
expert areas.
c) Attending subject specific national/ international conferences.
d) Knowledge sharing and exchange of experience shall be encouraged
among the expert groups of various regions by way of an annual national
level conference which may also be carried out online.
e) Regions to recognize outstanding efforts carried out by the team
members and appreciation letters to be given to such teams/ members
by Regional Head.
f) The Maintenance Specialist Groups shall also be covered under
Rewards and Recognition Scheme of the Corporation

2.6 To effectively monitor the POWERGRID asset base across the country and to
develop in-house expertise, formation of Specialized Maintenance Specialist
Groups is required in POWERGRID. The development of the pool of experts in
these specialized fields shall be beneficial for the company in the long run in
improving maintenance practices, knowledge sharing and development of
experts which shall result into operational efficiency / reliability of transmission
assets over the long term.

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