scope:

Objective of the guideline

In addition to the investments and the proceeds from the power generated and the heat released, the service costs are an important factor in the assessment of the economic efficiency. The maintenance costs incurred over the service life of a generating set may equal, or even exceed, the investment cost of that set.

A multitude of varying designations are used in service contracts. Legal problems may arise from the fact that the use of a specific term does not generally indicate without ambiguity the scope of the service, or may even be misleading. In case of a dispute about the scope of contract obligations, this may turn out to be disadvantageous to one of the contracting parties. This guideline intends to give recommendations regarding the cooperation between plant owner and service provider, and to harmonise the services to be performed by both contracting parties.

In all these contracts, the scope of services shall be specified in great detail. The service provider shall be required to compile a detailed catalogue of services, specifying all necessary activities. Responsibilities shall be minutely defined to rule out subsequent disagreements to the greatest possible degree.

Precise information on the scope of maintenance work and intervals shall therefore be demanded from the service provider, and shall be laid down in a contract. In doing so, the type of maintenance documentation should be specified as well. Also, the terms maintenance, preventive maintenance and corrective maintenance shall be clearly defined, as there are often misunderstandings about which parts are spare or wear parts and which of these are covered by the service contract, or shall be paid for separately.

On signing the service contract, both plant owner and service provider shall be sure of the costs each party has to expect during the contract period.

Individual contracts between plant owner and service provider shall be compared with the specifications of the guideline VDI 4680.