Bolivia's Rolls-Royce Turbines to Undergo Maintenance in England

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Bolivia's Kenko Thermal Plant Unit 1 will go offline on November 19 after reaching its 30,000 operating hours in response to Rolls-Royce maintenance parameters. During the 120-day major maintenance outage, the Rolls-Royce Avon 1535 Gas Turbine will be flown from Bolivia's El Alto City in La Paz to the Rolls-Royce repair shop in Aberdeen, England.

The 18-megawatt (MW) turbine's Flexi-Trent 110 Digital Control System will be upgraded in Aberdeen. The Program Logic Control (PLC) was created in 1990 and has been designed to control sequences and fuels. Currently, authorities from the 36-MWthermal plant, which is operated by Compañía Boliviana de Energía Eléctrica, COBEE (La Paz, Bolivia), are analyzing the possibility of switching over to a new control system technology. The possibilities under consideration are Rolls-Royce (London) and Rockwell Automation (Milwaukee).

The repairs will be held at Rolls Wood Group, which was established in 1990 as a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Wood Group, with its headquarters in Aberdeen.

In March 2008, another overhaul will be held at the other Rolls-Royce's 18-MW Unit 2 for about 120 days. The turbine will also be sent to the United Kingdom for its control-system upgrade.

COBEE has 10 hydroelectric plants in the Bolivian Zongo Valley, four in the Miguillas Valley and a small hydroelectric plant and Kenko thermoelectric plant in the capital of La Paz. All of them produce about 240.5 MW.

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