Tampa Electric's Big Bend Plant Copes with Temporary Loss of Two Units

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Two units at coal-fired Big Bend Power Station remain offline due to mechanical operations. Each unit has a capacity of 446 megawatts (MW). The station is owned by Tampa Electric (Tampa, Florida), a subsidiary of TECO Energy Incorporated (NYSE:TE) (Tampa).

Unit 2 was taken offline in late January due to a bearing failure. Water was discovered in the fueling system, which caused the turbine bearing to malfunction. Unit 3 experienced an electrical failure in February, which caused the generator to ground out.

The causes of the outages are still being investigated, but plant workers are making repairs and hope to return the units to service shortly. Plant personnel plan to return Unit 2 to service by the end of the week, while Unit 3 will remain offline until the end of the month.

Situated on Tampa Bay, Big Bend Power Station has a total capacity of 1,886 MW when all four units are operational.

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