Vibration Issues Force Missouri Coal-Fired Plant Offline

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Kansas City Power & Light's (KCP&L) (Kansas, Missouri) coal-fired Iatan Power Station in Weston, Missouri, was forced offline Monday morning, April 6, after the discovery of high vibrations in the turbine. The unit recently returned from a large major outage that lasted well over four months, and problems are still arising after the installation of various environmental equipment. A boiler tube leak was the culprit of the last forced outage, just days before the current ongoing outage. The turbine vibrations may keep the unit in an extended offline period, but investigations are being performed to determine whether this matter will be prolonged or not.

Several measures have been taken to make the unit better for the environment. The recently installed baghouse, burners and low nitrogen-oxide equipment were added to the unit in the first quarter of 2009. The unit returned online briefly, only to plummet into another outage because of turbine rotor damage. Repairs on this outage were completed about three weeks ago. Many precautions are being taken during this outage to ensure the unit's safe return with no other unexpected halts.

Great Plains Energy Incorporated (NYSE:GXP) (Kansas City) is the holding company of Kansas City Power & Light Company and KCP&L Greater Missouri Operations Company, two of the leading regulated providers of electricity in the Midwest. KCP&L services more than 800,000 customers in 47 northwestern Missouri and eastern Kansas counties.

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