600 MW Turbine Overspeed Blow Up

[Ken I]

This rates as a pretty big Boo Boo.

Our local utility supplier ESKOM manged to blow up a 600Mw steam turbine during a routine overspeed test.

They then tried to keep a lid on it by reporting it as a fire during routine maintenance. Kinda economical with the truth methinks.

Check out the holes in the roof - its like a bomb went off - and that broken driveshaft lying on the floor is ±350mm diameter.

http://nolstuijt.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/duvha-powerstation-turbine-blowup-sa/

Ken

 

[lazylathe]

Ken i only have one word to say about this!!!

EISH!!!!

Andrew

 

[b.lindsey]

Can you say T O A S T E D !!!! I hope noone was around.

Bill

 

[itowbig]

wow t6hat thing make a little mess

 

[boatmadman]

That is just downright scary and rank incompetence.

I work in a power station with a 60mw steam turbine and the shaft is larger than 350mm, so I expect that 600mw shaft is a bit bigger, though it is v difficult to tell as the only thing approaching a reference point is the handrails.

Ian

 

[John Rudd]

Ken,

I used to live/work in South Africa many years ago ( Germiston) so know about ESKOM....and the activities they get up to...but this is unreal....

 

[steamer]

Ken i only have one word to say about this!!!

EISH!!!!

Andrew

Huh! I could think of a few others!....)#&*(*@&)(*(&^#(&)#&*)$*& !

I bet the laundry bill was high that week!

Dave

 

[boatmadman]

More pictures turned up here:

http://www.massengineers.com/generator_accident_in_africa.htm

Ian

 

[Ken I]

That was a different accident back in 2003 caused by a blade failure - also diagnosed as result of incompetence.

Ken

 

[rklopp]

The overspeed test would have been done without a load on the generator. Hence it took very little steam to do the deed. I worked on the root cause investigation of an overspeed catastrophe in the US. In that event, the throttle & trip and main governor valves managed to both stick open following a full load trip (sudden loss of load due to an electrical glitch). The valves were found to be oxidized and worn badly. The valves only had to stick open a tiny amount due to the lack of load on the turbine.

 

[Ken I]

Rklopp,
Hence the reason for the tests - if you are running flat out and lose the load, overspeed occurs very rapidly.

First you test both sets of shut off valves operate correctly - then you go into overspeed testing - this requires bypassing each safety as it occurs - when you get to the last one you had better be damn sure that there are people with their hands on the "big switch" and manual valve trips in case it fails.

Clearly something wasn't done right.

Ken

 

[ChooChooMike]

Huh! I could think of a few others!....)#&*(*@&)(*(&^#(&)#&*)$*& !

I bet the laundry bill was high that week!

Hope they were all wearing brown pants so nobody could tell Rof} Rof}