Avoiding Bad Practices in Energy O&M

What separates a well-run power plant from one that fails prematurely? The answer lies not in expensive technology, but in the daily decisions, habits, and practices of the people who operate and maintain it.

Avoiding Bad Practices in Energy O&M: 100 Real Lessons from Power Plant Operations is a practical field guide compiled from real operational experiences across energy assets worldwide. Written by the expert team at EOM - Energy O&M Services, this casebook distills over 100 documented incidents, near-misses, and operational failures into clear, actionable lessons for O&M professionals, plant managers, engineers, and asset owners.

Each of the 100+ case studies follows a structured format (problem, negative consequence, lesson learned, improvement-solution, positive consequence and best practice) making it easy to extract value quickly and apply it directly to your plant or team.

Topics covered include:

• General O&M management and EPC-to-operations transitions
• Preventive and condition-based maintenance failures
• Control room operations and alarm management
• CMMS governance and documentation practices
• Rotating equipment, electrical systems, and instrumentation
• Chemical handling, lubrication, and long-term preservation
• Digital tools, AI integration, and data quality
• Organizational culture, training, and cross-functional communication

Whether you manage a solar PV farm, a wind plant, a thermal power plant, or a battery storage system, the failure patterns in this book will feel familiar, because they happen everywhere.

Fix one issue and you solve a problem. Understand the pattern and you prevent it from happening again.