January 2008
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The market for new power plants is presently being dominated by dramatic price rises and fully booked manufacturing capacities over the next few years. This situation also causes severe problems in the procurement of maintenance services and spares. In many cases the suppliers of new power plants and maintenance services are identical and access the same human and production resources. In spite of the difficult market situation a reliable supply of external maintenance services and spares is essential to avert production losses and extraordinary cost increases for existing power plants. Therefore RWE Power has established a program that comprises systematic market monitoring and analysis, long-term demand and procurement planning as well as a timely adjustment of sourcing strategies. Furthermore a united corporate appearance on the market place is crucial to enforce the customer's requirements on the supplier-dominated market. However this requires close collaboration between all corporate divisions concerned. This article provides an insight into the measures taken by RWE Power to assure a reliable procurement of services. It shows practical examples and addresses crucial factors of success. The aim of the approaches presented here is to overcome the present shortage situation without serious restrictions on power plant maintenance. Furthermore future trends on the markets are to be identified at an early stage so that appropriate action can be taken to stabilise collaboration with the service providers in the long run.