Venezuela's Planta Centro Unit 4 Back Online after Fire

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Unit 2 of Planta Centro started up again on November 8, 2007, after 10 days of repairs that were prompted by a fire on October 28, 2007. The unit tripped offline after a crack in the oil control system's tubes ignited the fire at the No. 2 turbine bearing. This unit had presented high levels of vibrations in bearings No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 during a restart on September 6, 2007, after maintenance. For more details, view related September 12, 2007, article - Planta Centro Forced to Shut Two of Five Generators for Repairs.

Unit 4's load is down to 240 megawatts (MW) because of a high pressure difference in the inlet/outlet of the regenerative air heaters. On November 3, 2007, the unit underwent emergency shutdown because of a major steam leak in the heating line connected to the high-pressure turbine. The unit was brought back online on November 5, 2007, at 1:35 a.m. after technicians fixed the steam leak. At 9:06 a.m. of the same day, the unit tripped offline again because of an abnormally low light-oil pressure condition. The unit was finally synchronized at 10:52 a.m.

Plant officials expect to have Unit 3 back online on December 14, 2007. This unit's generator failed on June 28, 2007, because of a detached blade in the hydrogen-cooling ventilator, causing cracks in the primary water system's hoses. Alstom Power specialists are performing repairs on the turbine's generator.

The plant's total capacity is at 560 MW of its 2,000-MW capacity. Units 1 and 5 are also unavailable, undergoing conversions in the main boilers to gas - a process that is scheduled to be finished by May 2008.

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