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Wairakei Power Station – New Zealand. Plant Modifications Arising Proceedings World Geothermal Congress 2010 Bali, Indonesia, 25-29 April 2010 Wairakei Power Station – New Zealand Plant Modifications Arising from Operational Deficiencies, Technology Advances and Life Extension Studies Chris Morris1 Brian Carey2 1 Generation Engineer, Contact Energy Limited, Wairakei, Private Bag 2001, Taupo, New Zealand 2 Geothermal Section Manager, GNS Science, Wairakei Research Centre, Private Bag 2000, Taupo, New Zealand, [email protected], [email protected] Keywords: Wairakei, New Zealand, geothermal power dimensions and weight imposed by the then existing rail station, modifications, reliability and road system. The components had to be shipped to Auckland, off loaded, transported by rail to Tokoroa and ABSTRACT then by road to Wairakei. Particular constraints were manifest in the Auckland rail tunnels (Load height The Wairakei Geothermal Power Station has had a limitations of 8.5’, with 45o top chamfers and width remarkable generation history since machine limitation of 8’) and the Atiamuri road bridge (Package commissioning through the period 1958 to 1963. The paper weight limitation of 50 tons). discusses some of the plant design constraints, the early reputation of the plant and learning experiences from over The power station went through at least 4 major redesigns 50 years of operation. Plant deficiencies have been before first machine commissioning in 1958. Initially the identified and analysed, plant maintenance processes have project was conceived as a dual power (47-MW) and heavy changed, life extension studies have been completed and water (6 t/yr) distillation plant but by the end of 1955 the technology advances have occurred through the decades. heavy water distillation plant had been abandoned and the Modifications to the plant and maintenance practices have project proceeded as a power only facility (Bolton, 2009 been made enabling the Wairakei steam turbine plant to p25). Additional background to the reworked designs, achieve high availability, low forced outage factors, high including removal of the heavy water production plant from plant load factors and an enviable 50 years of production the process and the changing MW capacity estimates of the service from the original plant. The paper discusses steamfield resource as drilling investigations progressed are selected aspects and modifications to the plant that have discussed in Thain and Stacey (1984). contributed to 50 years of outstanding service from the Wairakei Geothermal Power Station. The design was for a baseload station with redundancy of critical auxiliary plant. As with most stations at the time, 1. INTRODUCTION Wairakei had both black start and islanding capability. The The paper identifies plant design constraints that limited designers also had to take into account that the Waikato what was able to be installed and provides some River from which the cooling water was taken and returned commentary on the plant redesigns that occurred before would be raised by about 3m by the downstream Aratiatia commissioning. During the early years of operation the hydro development in 1964, soon after the Wairakei station plant gained a reputation for being unreliable regularly commissioning was completed. suffering forced outages. The issue of reliability was politically sensitive and communication was required to The MP machines (30MW) were designed so that they inform the Minister of Electricity and other government would be topped up with additional superheated steam part officials every time a machine trip occurred during critical way along the steam path. This was seeking to reduce the times. The paper discusses some of the focused operational expected moisture damage to the turbine blading from the and maintenance activity that dramatically changed this wet steam operation particularly from the moisture reputation. Various aspects of the station plant are formation in the steam path in the sub atmospheric low discussed, including turbine blading, diaphragms, midlife pressure stages. 60MW machines were considered for B machine assessments, Intermediate Pressure (IP) machine Station but the component dimension restrictions discussed refurbishment, Mixed Pressure (MP) inner casing above meant that the generator stators would have had to be replacement, electrical equipment, instrumentation, assembled on site. Hydrogen cooling of the generators was machine overhauls and plant performance. not seriously considered at the time because of the additional complexity. 2. KNOWLEDGE, SIZE, WEIGHT AND OTHER Taupo and Wairakei were small isolated settlements and CONSTRAINTS infrastructure had to be built as the station was constructed. The power plant design was constrained by the available Reticulated electricity was not available in the area when geothermal knowledge at the time particularly because the construction started and electricity for the construction there was little or no experience with wet geothermal steam site was provided by three steam engines in the steamfield generation. This was alleviated to some extent by and by diesel generators. The steam driven machines were: information gained by NZ engineers who visited Larderello, an old vertical Curtis turbine from Harris Street Power first with the army during World War II and then as part of Station Wellington (Figure 1), a 500 kW triple expansion a fact finding tour in 1948, pioneering metallurgical studies steam engine from the Christchurch tramways and a small undertaken in the early 1950’s (Marshall (1955)) and the Belliss and Morcom piston engine (Figure 2). Geothermal adoption of conservative engineering practice. The electricity generation effectively commenced about two designers had significant restrictions on component 1 Morris and Carey. years ahead of the official 15th November 1958 machine had tripped they did know what had caused the synchronisation ceremony of the Wairakei Power Plant. trip. It was guess work as to what had forced a unit off line. That often meant that if the assessment was not correct a repeat trip would occur. The A station rotary gas exhausters were unreliable and had no redundancy. During the early years, Wairakei was on a transmission spur line so lightning strikes added to the forced outage events. At times the grid experienced significant frequency excursions as there was little or no grid spinning reserve causing units to trip either from voltage regulation or turbine control oil pressure fluctuation An additional problem existed before the level of the Waikato River in the vicinity of Wairakei was raised for the Aratiatia Hydro power station. A machine trip could result in a cooling water pump losing its prime. Reinstating the pump to service required an operator to connect up a vacuum pump to lift water up into the pump housing before a restart could be attempted. Figure 1 - Vertical Curtis Turbine in Harris Street Power Station Wellington about 1907. Photo from the Energy Library photo catalogue. Also in a photo in Martin (1991) p62. Figure 2 - Photograph of Belliss and Morcom steam powered piston engine generator (16 BHP @ 700 rpm) used in the steamfield carpenters yard Figure 3 - Station configuration prior to (Murphy’s yard) during construction. decommissioning the station hot water flash plant in mid 1962. 3. UNRELIABLE WHITE ELEPHANT Between the official synchronisation ceremony and October The machine type and number identification is detailed in 1963 the remaining 12 machines were brought on line. the table below. Figure 3 is a mid 1962 schematic machine layout. The machine arrangements at completion of commissioning are Type Units MWe discussed in more detail in Thain and Carey (2009). High Pressure (HP) G2, G3 6.5 The machine commissioning dates are identified in Carey High Pressure (HP) G5, G6 11.5 (2000) p 3149. Through the period 1958 to 1963 the Intermediate Pressure (IP) G1, G4 11.2 machines developed a not undeserved reputation for being Low Pressure (LP) G7, G8, G9, G10 11.2 unreliable with numerous forced outages. Sequential relays were not installed so while the operators knew which Mixed Pressure (MP) G11, G12, G13 30 2 Morris and Carey The reliability issue became sensitive to the point that a life of the windings. In order to reduce the carbon special telephone was installed enabling the Operations contamination in the generator, the exciter air supply was Shift Supervisor to inform government officials of the separated from the generator air supply. reasons for every trip during critical times over the winter months when a trip often caused power outages to parts of G2 and G3 (6.5 MW HP machines) never performed to the North Island grid. If Parliament was sitting, the Minister rating, initially only being able to produce 6 MW. Webs in of Electricity also had to be rung, so he could answer any the inlet belt were thinned and steam chest nozzle changes questions in the House of Parliament. Questions were enabled generation at 6.3 MW. By the time that these asked about why money had been invested in such a white changes were made the steamfield High Pressure (HP) elephant, though it is likely that there was more than a hint operating pressures were being reduced (Carey and Thain of theatrical politics in this. 2009 p57) curtailing any further work. 4. IMPROVING WITH EXPERIENCE When the pressure reducing valves around the HP machines (refer Figure 3) were in use there was significant noise in A As experience was gained with operating the machines and station. Operators did all they could to avoid the use of teething issues were sorted out, a number of changes were these valves. High vibration levels caused metal fatigue, identified that have contributed to improved availability and necessitating changes to some components. Fatigue related reliability. A benefit of the station’s isolation was the modifications included changes made to the Intermediate comprehensive drawing records and the level of rotable Pressure (IP) turbine diaphragms seeking to reduce rotor spares, including a spare rotor and diaphragms for each blade failures. This is discussed below in section 5.1. machine type and spare generator transformers purchased as part of the original procurement contracts.
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