A success story coming from Ecuador, where Ansaldo Energia Service team completed in recent days a major overhaul of a non-OEM hydrogen cooling generator (Marelli) at the Esmeraldas I power plant. The positive outcome of the activity was of strategic importance as this thermoelectric plant, operating since 1979, has a capacity of 125 MW and its energy generation is essential to face periods of reduced supply at the national level.
In August 2022, due to a failure, the generator stopped working.
The first assessment has been carried out in October 2022, followed by its dismantling and a second assessment in February 2023.
In April 2023, the reverse engineering of spare parts and the third assessment have been completed.
In the tender process, the end customer CELEC EP indicated the end of October/beginning of November 2023 as the target date for restarting the generator, in order to compensate for the energy shortage due to the drought period, starting in November.
The October 2023 deadline could only be reached by proposing an emergency repair of the generator with partial replacement of the stator winding and using only the stator coils available in the customer's warehouse. This path made it possible to achieve the common goal of restarting the power station in early November.
Some numbers of the operation:
- Spare parts supply contract acquired in June 2023
- Repair services contract acquired in July 2023
- Activity window 25/07/2023 - 05/11/2023 (105 calendar days)
- Delivery of end of work report 16/11/2023
- Ansaldo Energia personnel on site: no. 14
- COVALCO personnel on site: no. 7
- ZERO EHS events: the safety conditions at Esmeraldas were quite critical so some specific actions had been applied to supplement the normal site safety procedures. For example, an ad hoc additional notice was created to formalize the procedures, arrangements and operational advice that were taken to better respond to site condition.
A great team effort that allowed our Group to achieve a high valuable result, in complex environmental conditions, recognized and appreciated also at a formal level by customers COVALCO and CELEC EP.
https://www.teleamazonas.com/central-termica-esmeraldas-apagones-ecuador/
