For a generating unit, dispatch rank is a math problem and the numbers behind that math are equivalent availability factor, equivalent forced outage rate, and net plant heat rate. A coal-fired mid-merit unit loses roughly $400,000 to $900,000 in annual gross margin for every percentage point of EAF surrendered, and a 100 Btu/kWh heat-rate drift on a 500 MW unit quietly erases another $300,000 a year in fuel. NERC GADS benchmarks put top-quartile thermal EFOR under 2%, top-quartile CCGT EFOR under 3%, and the industry median for both types roughly double that. Yet many power-plant maintenance teams still reconcile these numbers in a monthly Excel workbook from work-order exports and shift-log spreadsheets — because the CMMS was never set up to calculate them continuously against the operational data. A dashboard that reads work-order timestamps, SCADA outage events, DCS run-hour meters, and heat-rate tags in one view is what makes reliability visible in the moment, not the month after. iFactory's Reliability KPI Dashboard is that view.
iFactory Reliability KPI Dashboard
MTBF, MTTR, EFOR, Backlog — In One View, Continuously
Every reliability metric a plant leader is measured on, calculated live from CMMS work orders and SCADA outage events, benchmarked against NERC GADS, and drillable to the failing asset.
EFOR
top quartile <2% coal, <3% CCGT
$1.2M
/yr per 1% EAF at 500 MW
NERC GADS
benchmarks in-panel
Why Monthly Excel Reporting Loses You the Number
By the time the maintenance meeting sees the number, the month it describes is closed and the drivers are stale. Reliability metrics only actually change behavior if the plant sees them while there is still time to act on the drivers.
Monthly Reporting
"Why did EFOR jump last month?"
Metrics assembled from CMMS exports and shift-log Excel
Numbers arrive 2–3 weeks after the events they describe
Cause codes assigned at close-out — often wrong on 72-hr rule
Drilldown to the failing asset is a manual reconstruction
Live Dashboard
"The number and the driver, right now."
Metrics calculated live from work-order and SCADA data
EFOR, EAF, MTBF, MTTR update as work orders and outages close
Cause-code validation against the NERC 72-hour rule at close-out
Drilldown from the KPI to the specific failing asset in two clicks
The KPIs That Actually Drive Decisions
Reliability has many possible metrics. The ones the plant meeting actually acts on are a short list, and getting these five right is what changes dispatch rank and PPA margin.
EFOR
Equivalent Forced Outage Rate — the NERC-reported number that drives capacity market position and PPA penalty. Top-quartile coal <2%, CCGT <3%.
Report: NERC GADS quarterly
EAF
Equivalent Availability Factor — hours available adjusted for deratings. Every point moves ~$1.2M/yr on a 500 MW unit at $50/MWh.
Report: NERC GADS quarterly
MTBF
Mean Time Between Failures per asset. Typical coal steam 4,000–6,000 hrs; CCGT gas turbine 7,000–9,000 hrs.
Report: reliability meeting
MTTR
Mean Time To Repair — the number that decides whether an event is a one-shift stop or an extended outage. Tied to planning quality and spare readiness.
Report: monthly
PM Ratio
Planned work as a share of total work hours. Reactive-heavy plants sit below 60%; well-run plants target above 80% planned.
Report: monthly
What the Dashboard Actually Does
The dashboard is a compute layer over the plant's existing CMMS and DCS/SCADA. It does not ask anyone to enter data twice — it reads what the plant already produces and assembles the metrics correctly.
Read
Work-order timestamps and cause codes from the CMMS, outage events from SCADA, run-hour meters and heat-rate tags from the DCS, all into one asset-based view.
Calculate
EFOR, EAF, MTBF, MTTR, PM ratio, wrench time, backlog age — calculated per unit, per asset class, per cause code, updated as events close.
Benchmark
NERC GADS ranges displayed alongside the plant's number by generation type — coal, CCGT, hydro — so a 4% EFOR reads differently for a gas turbine than a coal unit.
Drill
Every KPI drillable to the failing asset, the specific work orders, the cause codes, and the shift the event happened on — root-cause visible without a spreadsheet dive.
What a Live Dashboard Actually Delivers
When the KPIs are live, correct, and drillable, the reliability meeting stops arguing about the numbers and starts arguing about the actions. That change is where the availability and dispatch-rank movement actually comes from.
Real-time
EFOR / EAF
not month-end reconciliation
Right
Cause codes
72-hr rule validated at close-out
Faster
Drilldown
from KPI to asset in two clicks
Higher
Availability
actions taken while it still helps
Look at your last three months of reliability meetings. If the number the leadership team is arguing about was assembled in Excel by an analyst on Monday morning, it's an argument about the data, not the reliability. Book a plant assessment — we'll show one unit's live EFOR.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this replace our CMMS?
No — it sits on top of it. The dashboard reads work orders, cause codes, and asset data from your existing CMMS (SAP PM, Maximo, OxMaint, or others) and outage events from your SCADA. Nothing moves to a parallel system. What changes is that the metrics are calculated correctly and continuously from the data the plant already produces, instead of assembled in a monthly Excel reconciliation.
How does it handle the NERC GADS 72-hour rule correctly?
The GADS rule is that a forced outage is any outage that cannot be deferred past the next weekend — a 72-hour notice threshold. Misclassifying a delayed maintenance outage as planned is the #1 finding in GADS audits and can force a resubmission. The dashboard validates outage-type classification against the 72-hour rule at close-out, flagging any classification that doesn't match the notice window, so the number that goes to the quarterly GADS submission is defensible before it is submitted.
What about heat rate and derates?
Heat rate degradation is one of the quiet KPI movers — 100 Btu/kWh drift on a 500 MW baseload unit is roughly $300K/year in extra fuel. The dashboard reads the heat-rate tag from the DCS and trends it against the unit's design curve, so degradation surfaces early. Equivalent Forced Derated Hours (EFDH) roll into EFOR the way GADS calculates them — a 30% derate for 10 hours counts the same as full unavailability for 3 hours.
Book a plant assessment to see heat-rate trending on your unit.
Can it show different benchmarks for coal vs CCGT vs hydro?
Yes. Every KPI panel shows the benchmark range for the generation type — coal steam, CCGT, hydro — so a plant leader isn't comparing a coal unit to a hydro unit's availability targets. The benchmark data comes from NERC GADS industry ranges and is updated as GADS publishes annual updates. A CCGT with 4% EFOR is a different conversation than a coal unit at the same number, and the dashboard makes that visible.
Can we start with one unit?
Yes — typical starting point is one generating unit with a full month of historical CMMS and SCADA data loaded, all metrics calculated retrospectively, and the drilldown validated against the plant's own memory of what happened. That single-unit pilot proves the compute layer and the write-back to reliability reporting before rolling across the site. Book a plant assessment and we'll pick the right first unit.
Stop arguing about the number in the monthly meeting.
See One Unit's EFOR, EAF, MTBF, and MTTR Live
Bring one unit's last month of CMMS work-order data and SCADA outage events. We'll compute every reliability KPI live, benchmark against NERC GADS, and show the drilldown to the failing asset.
