Duke Energy Starts Major Inspection at Morro Bay

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) (Charlotte, North Carolina) has started a five-week outage at its Morro Bay Power Station's 359 megawatt (MW) Unit 3 today. The outage is expected to last until mid-February. The facility is located within the City of Morro Bay, in San Luis Obispo County, California, near Morro Bay Harbor.

Unit 3 consists of a gas/oil Babcock & Wilcox opposed-fired dry bottom boiler, with a Westinghouse steam turbine and generator set. The maintenance scope includes major inspection and repair on the boiler, turbine, generator, and other components.

Repairs and inspections for the turbine and generator will include; checking of water level control, thorough flushing of any accumulated sediment, checking lubricating oil levels, inspecting oil pumps, filters, and alignment, checking fluid levels on hydraulic valves, blades and seals repair, governor, bearings, casings inspections, and non-destructive testing (NDE).

Determining the correct time to perform a major maintenance outage for steam turbine generators can be a difficult decision for power plant operators. Several factors must be taken into consideration in today's market, including; employee downsizing, aging equipment, and reduced operating and maintenance budgets. The best alternative for tracking remaining useful life and equipment is frequent on-line monitoring, or changes in operating procedures.

Morro Bay Power Station is owned and operated by Duke Energy Morro Bay LLC, an affiliate of Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) (Charlotte, North Carolina), the U.S top natural gas liquids producer and an integrated energy company that develops, constructs, and operates energy facilities worldwide.