Industry: 150 Megawatt Hydro Electric Power Station
Location: Attapeu, Laos
Circumstances: Following typhoon Ondoy the Sekong river rose several meters causing severe flooding to the first 3 floors of a 150 megawatt hydro-electric power station totally submerging the 4 megawatt house generator, all turbines, some large 11KV transformers and much of the instrumentation and control electronics.
- IRS mobilized a team of electrical engineers and technicians driving approximately 18 hours from Bangkok, to assist recover the plant.
- Damage assessment of the plant and equipment was undertaken including availability of spare parts.
- All affected control cabinets, needle valve controllers, hydraulic pumps and motors were disassembled and decontaminated according to IRS’s processes.
- In house generator prioritized in order to restore electrical supply. This was accomplished within two weeks of arrival in cooperation with local technical staff.
- The associated 4 MW, 11 KV, dry transformer was also decontaminated and dried by IRS. Three spare dry transformers and associated test equipment were also decontaminated and tested. Approximately 70 air-con units were repaired by IRS and tested and restored to use in the workers dwellings.
- Many electronic modules repaired with components sourced from Thailand as new units needed to be imported from Europe and Japan.
- Due to the extremely remote location in Laos, parts were sourced and transported from neighbouring Thailand by IRS personnel saving time.
- Electrical power was restored by way of the 4MW house generator within two weeks of IRS arrival.
- Temporary repairs to many of electronic modules by IRS allowed the plant to start producing power from the main generators within 5 – 6 weeks of the flooding event. This allowed the technical staff to replace the damaged modules during an organized shutdown at a later date.
- More than US$5 million saved by restoring equipment rather than replacing.