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Termopernambuco (Termope), Thermoelectric Plant (TEP) fully controlled by Neoenergia, has an installed capacity of 533 MW, through two gas turbines and a steam turbine forming a combined cycle of thermal generation.

In the year 2020, a maintenance program called Hot Gas Path was scheduled, which occurs every 32,000 hours of operation of the gas turbine, where it is necessary to replace its so-called hot parts. It is a process that demands a lot of planning due to the complexity of the maintenance and logistics required to make all the necessary resources viable. Such process requires the need of more than 80 people directly connected to the replacement of the "hot parts", which can be called a great challenge from the engineering point of view.

This maintenance, which was initially planned for the period from April 18 to May 13, had to be rescheduled as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, being postponed to the period from June 13 to July 8. Making the stop in the middle of a pandemic, something never imagined, has added several challenges to an engineering process that, in itself, is already a great challenge. For this to happen, there were more than 35 companies and more than 400 employees working in rotation shifts for 24 hours, for one week. The stop also included more than 20 Health and Safety professionals who worked in rotation shifts during the entire period.  

In order to perform the maintenance eliminating the risks brought by the pandemic, more than 200 actions were carried out against the contamination by the coronavirus. As a result: no suspected cases of Covid-19 were recorded during the entire stop process, which was completed six days ahead of schedule and with zero accident.

The Teams tool, made available to all Neoenergia employees, was key in the management of follow-up meetings and integration processes with suppliers, since everything was done remotely. Even with all the adversities, the stop was a success, with more than 96% of the planned scope reached and more than 1,800 activities completed.

Besides all this, this was the first time that the gas turbine maintenance was performed with 100% Brazilian labor. Because of the pandemic, the borders of several countries were closed, making international travel impossible and driving us to hire national suppliers. There were great logistical challenges of materials and service mobilization, but totally overcome through the effort of our work teams and on account of effective management, making Termope's scheduled 2020 stop a success case.