Planning in detail delivers successful outage service for power station actuators
24/01/2011
Rotork Site Services in Australia has completed the comprehensive workshop service of twenty-eight Rotork IQ valve actuators within the critical four week timescale dictated by a power station shutdown.
The actuators have been installed at the 487 MW Pelican Point combined–cycle gas turbine power station near Adelaide in South Australia for seven years. On site facilities to carry out the work were limited, so a decision was made to remove the actuators and transport them to Rotork’s own fully equipped workshops at Ballarat, some 600 kilometres from the power station.
Rotork took complete control of the project, hiring a truck to transport the actuators rather than relying on a third-party when the precise timing of activities would not be known. The project was divided into four, week-long portions, involving removal, workshop service, return and refit and re-commission.
Actuators required only relatively minor repairs, mainly caused by environmental exposure. In all cases, only genuine Rotork parts were used, enabling the actuators to be tested and returned in as-new condition. All the work was completed within the strict timescale allowed, ensuring that Rotork Site Services’ performance would not delay the power station’s plans for re-starting.