GRDA Plant in Oklahoma Remains Off-Line for Repairs

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Researched by Industrial Information Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--GRDA Power Station, which is located in Chouteau, Oklahoma, owned by Grand River Authority and operated by GRDA (Vinita Oklahoma), has shut down its 520-megawatt, coal-fired Unit 2 because of a turbine vibration.

The GRDA facility was off-line due to a planned major overhaul maintenance outage back in September. The shutdown was supposed to last about six weeks, but it turned into a 65-day outage. Problems with turbine vibration were incurred that delayed the unit from returning online until late November. The unit did return online in late November, but officials were forced to take the unit down shortly afterward due to excessive issues with vibration. A turbine vibration can be a serious and costly incident if the problem is not resolved in the early stages, and it can impact other operational components.

Turbine monitoring is normally a relevant part of operating any power plant on a daily basis. Some of the potential faults associated with vibration can be cracked rotors, bad bearings, damaged shaft, casing expansion, speed or over-speed, and zero-speed temperature issues. Plant officials use different devices and measurement techniques to monitor a turbine during an operational cycle for these possible occurrences.

In many cases, some of the measurements may be configured to provide or project warnings or an alarm that would signal a unit shutdown. Plant sources are still evaluating and running analyses on the vibration issues, and they had anticipated returning the unit online by December 14. Because they are still trying to resolve the issue, the unit will be delayed at least another two weeks, if there are no added delays. The unit is projected to be online by December 28.

The coal-fired plant has two generating coal units and a generating capacity of 1,010 megawatts when at full load. Unit 1 continues to operate online at full capacity.

Grand River Dam Authority is a state agency that serves as a "conservation and reclamation district for the waters of the Grand River." It controls and stores the river's waters, and generates waterpower and electrical energy "to use, distribute, and sell within the boundaries of the district."

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