Activity was performed at Termopernambuco in order to reduce the maintenance time of the equipment and assure the energy generation availability.
Neoenergia and WEG performed, for the first time, a major maintenance activity in a transformer at the facilities of a thermal power plant, providing more efficiency to the work and assuring the energy generation availability. The service was performed at Termopernambuco (Termope), in Ipojuca (PE), and avoided the shutdown of the enterprise. The equipment operating as an auxiliary transformer has power of 18/22MVA and voltage of 13.8/4.16kV.
“With the solution, we were able to reduce the service time, on average, from six months, if it were performed at the supplier's facilities, to 30 days, since it has been performed in loco. Another advantage was the possibility of gathering both on field and remotely the company's and supplier's expertise, with technological domain of the equipment, engineering experience and assurance of technical qualification of the teams", stated Termopernambuco's Deputy Maintenance Manager, José Luis Molla.
In order to assure the safe performance of the service, the plant prepared the infrastructure to receive equipment and technicians. 10 professionals from Neoenergia and WEG were part of the work. The transformer is a plant's auxiliary system equipment, with power of 22MVA and weighing more than 22 tons. The repaired equipment contributes to the safety and availability the plant makes available on the system. In addition, WEG is one of the few companies with feasibility to supply and promptly install the switch under load, which shows its technical-industrial capacity.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, a strict health and safety protocol was prepared by Termope including tests, requirement to wear masks and intensification of personal and work environment sanitization. The standards were followed by the employees from both companies and avoided the contamination of the professionals by the novel coronavirus.
Termopernambuco has the capacity to generate up to 533 MW from three turbines in combined cycle system. Such process combines the operation of two natural gas-fired turbines with one steam turbine. The plant keeps sale contracts of 455 MW on average for both Neoenergia's distribution company for a period of 20 years, of which 390 MW are on average for Celpe (PE) and 65 MW are on average for Coelba (BA).