Turbine refurbin' keeps energy surgin'

Every year, Power and Water staff members perform an overhaul of one of the five steam turbine/generators at the T.B. Simon Power Plant. This preventative maintenance work is crucial to ensuring the university, its students, staff and research activities are supplied with reliable electric service.

This summer, it was turbine #3’s turn at the full “spa” treatment.

“The overhaul generally takes 8-10 weeks to perform, but it does vary depending on the scope of work,” said Power and Water maintenance supervisor Kirk Marble. “During the overhaul, we completely dismantle the turbine/generator and inspect all of the components.”

He added, “The rotor on this particular machine weighs approximately 8,000 pounds and the upper casing for this unit weighs approximately 18,000 pounds, so we use our overhead crane to safely raise and lower the equipment.”

Plant mechanic Corey Sanders lead the team that included mechanics Ron Hensley, Mike Thiry, Mike McGlynn and Mike Bowling in the overhaul of this unit. A field service representative from the turbine’s manufacturer was on hand for technical support.

“When we removed the turbine rotor, we found it had a lot of damage and needed to be sent to the manufacturer’s shop for a rebuild,” Marble said.

It’s this type of damage that they hope to detect and fix before it results in a complete failure.

“Each one of these steam turbines is vital to the operation of the campus,” Marble said. “They drive the generators which produce electricity for the campus, and keep it running 24/7/365.”