KPIs and measurements
Availability factor
Also known as availability, plant availability.
Availability factor is the percentage of total hours in a period (typically a year, 8,760 hours) during which a plant is available to operate, whether or not it actually does. It is calculated as (total period hours − unavailable hours) / total period hours, where "unavailable" includes both planned and forced outages.
Typical industrial availability
| Sector | Typical availability |
|---|---|
| Coal-fired utility | 80–88% |
| Combined-cycle gas turbine | 90–95% |
| Waste-to-energy | 85–92% |
| Cement plant kiln | 88–94% |
| Refinery FCC | 95%+ (4-year turnaround cycle) |
| Pulp mill recovery boiler | 90–96% |
Why availability matters
Every percentage point of availability translates directly to revenue for a tipping-fee-driven WtE plant, a cement plant constrained by clinker output, or a recovery-boiler-limited pulp mill. Cleaning systems that defer forced outages are central to availability defence — sonic horns installed for fouling control protect availability against the most common cleaning-related outage causes.
Related terms
Related terms
- Capacity factorCapacity factor is actual energy output divided by theoretical maximum if a plant ran at full nameplate continuously. Combines availability with market dispatch.
- Forced outageA forced outage is an unplanned shutdown of an industrial unit, typically triggered by equipment failure or pressure-vessel safety conditions. The dominant economic cost of poor cleaning practice.
- Mean Time Between FailuresMTBF is the average time between failures of repairable equipment. The headline reliability metric for industrial maintenance planning.