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Southern California Edison |
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| Southern California Edison's Etiwanda Generating Station is a medium sized power plant located below the foothills of western San Bernardino County. We have four GE turbine generators driven by four CE drum type boilers. We also have a jet peaking unit for a total capacity of 1,020 mw. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Because of the new competitive business environment sweeping the utility industry, we began a condition based maintenance program in the summer of 1992. Our goal was to assist in lowering the station's O&M costs 29% by the year 2000. | ||||||||||||||||||
| As a part of the condition based maintenance philosophy I began a lube oil program in January of 1993. I am an operator working a 12 hour shift schedule and I work with the lube oil program in my spare time. As you might suspect, the program that first year was a very modest one. I used a three pronged approach. | ||||||||||||||||||
| The first consisted of identifying the critical equipment that I intended to sample, getting sample valves installed, and sending them to our division oil lab located about an hour's drive away. Sample valve installation was slow - our maintenance force is not large and work requests are numerous. I was able to send no more than a dozen samples a month with the results coming back to me in two to three weeks. Our division lab tests for particle count, water content, and TAN. | ||||||||||||||||||
| The second approach was simply to act on the results of the sampling. I did the best that I could on my own. I flushed and changed the oil in the dirty bearings when I could, and wrote work requests when I needed help from the maintenance department. Portable lube oil filtering equipment was ordered. | ||||||||||||||||||
| The third approach was to protect the station's oil inventory which was stored outside in drums and also in indoor bulk storage tanks that were left open to the atmosphere. I tried to keep the barrels dry and dirt free. The decision was made to switch to bulk storage racks for all our oil. This would give us filtering capability and do away with both an environmental and a lubrication program headache - the 55 gallon drum. Access hatches are now kept closed on the inside storage tanks and they are centrifuged from time to time. | ||||||||||||||||||
| For a modest program, we did have some important saves; the most noteworthy being a feed pump hydraulic coupling that was running with oil so saturated with water that a sample left standing for a few days would separate out to about two parts oil to one part water. No one was aware that this condition existed and it was the very first sample that I obtained that brought this problem to light. Our CBM coordinator, Mike Baker, purchased a Pall Purifier, a portable oil conditioner with water removal capability. Since its installation, we have been able to keep this oil well within acceptable limits. | ||||||||||||||||||
| In 1994 our lube oil program has taken great strides forward. First of all we have purchased a particle counter, a Diagnetics Contam-Alert version 2.1 with the PCM. We purchased the lab stand and the portable field kit. We also purchased an oil filter patch kit with a small microscope from B&T Hydraulics. | ||||||||||||||||||
| I asked some of my fellow operators individually if they would like to volunteer to work with a new lube oil program and quickly received nine positive responses. Five of us, plus a machinist, attended the Diagnetics Oil Analysis and Proactive Maintenance Seminar in San Diego, and another five took the seminar in San Jose. We asked for and were given a small, used, chemical lab in which to set up shop. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Our oil lab has been in operation now for only three months. What we are attempting is an experiment. We want to see if a lube oil program that is 100% voluntary can be successful. We want to see if a laboratory can be operated in an efficient manner by ten people working in their spare time without a "boss" or a head technician and still meet the standards that a quality lab must meet. | ||||||||||||||||||
| When the lab is all set up we will have a list of all equipment sampled on a large poster. Each machine will have indicated the date of the last sampling. This way anyone can quickly see which samples need to be drawn. We also keep a list of jobs that need to be performed. Bearings needing oil changes, reservoirs needing filtering, or sample valves needing installation will be on this list. Anyone having the time and the inclination will pick a task and sign it off when completed. So far this approach seems to be working. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Our lab has been enhanced with a computer, a hot plate for "crackle" tests, a ferrous counter and a dVA (a viscosity measuring device), both of the latter from Diagnetics. | ||||||||||||||||||
| It is interesting to see how the volunteers are starting to specialize. Some would rather grab samples and run the tests, while others prefer installing sampling valves, or plumbing air lines to lab equipment which require it. One volunteer has taken charge of the computer programming and is also learning about wear particle analysis as fast as she can. | ||||||||||||||||||
| This is how our lab works. First, we obtain our oil samples with care. Then we shake them up real good (a converted paint shaker will soon be of help). We run them through the particle counter for a pass or fail test. Right now ISO 16/13 will pass for our more critical equipment and ISO 18/15 passes for the rest. These limits will probably be lowered as our oil cleans up. | ||||||||||||||||||
| The samples that pass are given the "crackle" test for a water pass or fail test and those failing the particle count are re-sampled. If they fail the second time, we run them through the filter patch and use the microscope to see if we have dirt and sand or wear particles. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Soon we will begin using our ferrous counter and will look for a noticeable increase in iron particles as a percentage of the entire particle count. This will tip us off to the beginnings of abnormal machine wear and we will watch these machines closely and examine the wear particles carefully under a microscope. | ||||||||||||||||||
| We will also add a viscosity monitoring program soon. We will check the viscosity of oils that lubricate our hotter running equipment or any oil that has gone through a rapid color change or has a different smell to it. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Action is taken on any equipment which fails our tests. If necessary, reservoirs with more than 10 gallons are filtered. Otherwise the oil is "sweetened" or changed. Smaller reservoirs oil is changed. The equipment is examined for the source of contamination. The volunteers can handle the smaller repairs, while maintenance helps with the larger problems. | ||||||||||||||||||
| We continue to send samples to our division lab from time to time as a check on our own testing, and for acid number of exact water content determination. We also send a few samples to an outside lab for wear particle analysis. This is as much for our own education as it is for a check on our equipment. | ||||||||||||||||||
| We make up a monthly report of the lab's activities. We feel that this is a very important part of our volunteer effort. On the report we list the number of samples taken during the month, how many were tested in our lab and how may were sent to other labs. We have gone from a high of 12 samples a month last year to more than 50 samples per month with our new lab. | ||||||||||||||||||
| We also give a brief summary of problems that we have discovered and what we did to correct them. For instance, in August we had a high particle count and some water in a circulating water pump motor bearing. The particles were dust and fine sand. We changed the oil and found that a bent slinger ring view port was the source of the contamination. We made temporary repairs to the port and submitted a work request for a more permanent repair. | ||||||||||||||||||
| In our last report we included graphs showing the cleanliness of our turbine lube oil reservoirs. While these graphs clearly show a trend toward the cleaner end of the scale, they will be more meaningful in the future. We take samples much more often now. Our turbine reservoirs are sampled monthly. The more samples taken, the more realistic the graphs become. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Those of us working with the lube oil program have learned a lot and we continue to learn everyday. As we get our oil cleaned up and under control, we will bring less critical equipment into our program. We have lots of ideas for the future. We want to use our particle counter to check the integrity of our filters, we want to upgrade some of our filters' we would like to purchase a "ferrogram" next year and so on. | ||||||||||||||||||
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Those of us in the lube oil program are a small part of the employees at
Etiwanda who have chosen not to remain passive bystanders in the competitive
struggle that our company is going through. The future is little uncertain
right now. Powerful groups are questioning our present system of power
production and distribution and they are clearly challenging us to deliver
power in the most efficient way possible. Our jobs and the quality of our
lives hang in the balance. We must maintain the integrity of our equipment,
and operate them efficiently, safely, and cleanly if we hope to survive
the future. Our lube oil lab is a step in the right direction.
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