Nuclear outage delivered on original schedule despite significant unplanned repairs
Short-cycle repair solution likely saved the customer millions of dollars and extensive incremental downtime.
Overview
Unplanned repairs needed on 100+ steam turbine blades didn’t deter GE’s Steam Power team from completing a nuclear outage in the eastern U.S. on schedule.
The challenge
It’s not unusual for unplanned or ‘emergent’ work to be discovered during the course of a standard nuclear plant maintenance outage. However, when the ‘hood’ was opened up on a steam turbine in a U.S. nuclear power station, unknown damage was discovered on more than 100 blades and associated components. Despite an extensive new project scope, the operator challenged GE’s Steam Power team to complete the outage within the project’s originally planned schedule. Additionally, the repairs would require adapting certain components to properly fit across the plant’s generator and steam turbine equipment.
The solution
The GE team proposed a repair schedule that featured on-site execution of the work in parallel to other ongoing maintenance activities. Experts were quickly mobilized to repair all 100+ blades without having to send any components to a repair shop or manufacture new ones.
Outcomes
100+
steam turbine blades repaired
0
days added to outage cycle
<19 days
to complete outage
Executing the repairs on-site enabled completion of the outage with zero days added to the original work schedule… in a total project cycle of under 19 days. Sending the components to a repair shop would have added several days—if not weeks—to the outage schedule, which for a site that powers more than one million homes in the eastern U.S. translates to significant revenue. At the same time, helping the operator avoid purchasing such a volume of new blades by delivering a short-cycle repair solution likely saved the customer millions of dollars and extensive incremental downtime.
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