Annual Power Engineering Exchange (APEX) SUMMIT 2014

The Programme - Programme

About the Presenters - The Presenters

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APEX PAPER WINNER 2014

Kelsey Keenan, Meridian

Kelsey graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, Second Class Honours in April 2014, was a summer student with Meridian Energy and started in their graduate programme earlier in 2014. She has been involved in the decommissioning and removal of redundant equipment at the Benmore Hydro station and local service supply reviews for the Waitaki Valley stations. The main focus of her work at present is the electrical side of the Waitaki Unit 3 Refurbishment project.

Reinstatement of Unit3 at Waitaki Hydro Power Station

Waitaki Dam was built in the 1920s and has seven 15MW machines which were all installed by 1954. In 1998 Unit 3 was forced out of service as the governor was unable to control the wicket gates; this was the latest in a string of issues since the unit was overhauled in 1995 and a decision was made to decommission the unit. The purpose of this project is to reinstate Unit 3 to improve the redundancy of supply at Waitaki, at the same time a full site refurbishment project is being undertaken. While Unit 3 was decommissioned it was utilised for spare parts and was not upgraded with the other machines, therefore replacing and redesigning for missing or obsolete equipment has been a large component of the electrical work. The unit itself has required a large amount of mechanical work ranging from repairs, to the complete manufacture of new components. The interesting aspect of Unit 3 is that the commissioning process will be similar to that for a completely new unit, with the added complexity of retesting old equipment and pre-existing installations. Reinstating this machine after 16 years is a complex project with many interesting challenges to be overcome.

Presentations