California Power Plant Forced Offline after Water-Delivery System Failure

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--California is in the midst of an intense drought, but the lack of rainfall was not what caused a water shortage Friday morning at the La Paloma Generating Station (McKittrick, California). "Something blew up at the MCC, and we were out of water and had to shut down the units this morning," a plant official said. "We've got it taken care of, and we should be back in a short amount of time," another official said.

It is still unclear exactly what blew up, although preliminary findings link the cause to water pumps controlled by the Motor Control Center (MCC), which left the units without the water needed for not only cooling, but also without steam-generation capability to power the steam turbines. La Paloma's four 262-megawatt (MW) combustion turbine/heat recovery steam generator/steam turbines (CT/HRSG/ST) are currently offline this morning for that reason, even though the problem has apparently already been addressed and the units should be available for service sometime this weekend.

The La Paloma facility began operating in 2003 and consists of four units totaling 1,048 MW of generating capacity. Each unit operates in a combined-cycle, single-shaft configuration, one of the most efficient modular generating units available. The station is owned and operated by La Paloma Generating Company LLC (La Paloma, California).

View Plant Profile - 1035651
View Outage Report - 64271 64272 64273 64275

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading marketing information services company for the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy-related markets throughout the world. For more than 24 years, IIR has provided accurate and timely intelligence through products such as plant and project information databases, focused market databases, industry forecasting, key industry contacts, industry and territorial map products, direct marketing services and applications, and daily industry news.