Cost assessment model for sustainable operation and maintenance of large public research infrastructures

Abstract

For efficient operation and maintenance of Large Public Research Infrastructures (LPRIs) built with expensive equipment and operating engineers, reasonable budget needs to be allocated. However, it is difficult to fulfill sustainable operation and maintenance (O&M) because there is no standard on budgeting for efficient LPRI operation. There have been a lot of cost assessment studies regarding O&M of high demand facilities such as hospitals, hotels and residential buildings, but a very few on sustainable O&M of LPRI. The objective of this paper is to propose a cost assessment model for sustainable operation and maintenance of large public research infrastructures. Actual O&M data of six LPRIs are collected, and cash flow model and regression analysis model are used for development and evaluation a combined cost assessment model (CAM). When O&M cost estimated by CAM is compared with actual O&M cost of LPRI, the actual O&M cost is 21% less than the estimated cost. The result implies that O&M cost of existing LPRI may have been over or under appropriated than the reasonable standard for efficient operation, and it reveals that it is necessary to establish a budgeting standard for sustainable O&M.

Keywords

• cost assessment
• research infrastructure
• operation and maintenance
• cash flow
• regression analysis