Case Study Hayano-Sushenskaya Power Plant

Russia-Consanguineously Hydroelectric Power Station Disaster Date: 28th Cot 2013 Student name: Estella Sings Student number: CSS-0013222 Tutor name: Mr.. Sin Introduction The Saying-sensuousness power station located near Kangaroos In Khakis, Russia Is one of the world’s largest hydro power plants. It has the capacity to provide huge amount of power, enough to power a city of 3.

8 million. It is the major power supplier to two aluminum smelters owned by united Company URSULA, the world’s largest aluminum producer.

The dam, completed in the year 1978, is bout mm (aft) high & stretches about 1 km across the Weenies River. August 17, 2009 turned out to be one of the worst industrial catastrophes for the whole of Russia when disaster struck the power station. At 8. 1 am the station experienced a catastrophic “pressure surge” in turbine 2.

The sudden strong water pressure surge caused the ejection of Turbine 2. Water rushed in violently flooding the engine and turbine rooms.

Turbines 7 and 9 had severe damages; the turbine room roof fell on damaging also Turbines 3, 4 and 5. With the flooding of the water, strong explosions were heard In the transformer room. A total of 75 lives were lost In this terrible disaster.

The purpose of this report Is to evaluate the root cause and to highlight the possible findings which had contributed to this disaster, the side effects it has caused to the society, environment and finally to conclude the overall lesson learned.

Company background Completed and opened in 1978, The Soviet-era Saying- Sensuousness SSH power plant is equipped with 10 huge turbines and It had the capability to produce power of 650 MM. Rushed the owner, established In December 2004 as part of Russian’s prevarication movement. It owns 55 hydro plants and Is considered as one of the leading power company In Russia, and Is practically the second-largest hydroelectric power company in the world. About 70% of the energy generated by Rushed goes to united Company Arousal’s aluminum smelters, which makes about 12% of the world’s aluminum.

Construction of the SSH begun in the year 1961 , based on installed capacity, Saying-sensuousness Hydro was once included in Guinness World Records as a plant with the most durable dam in the world.

History of the Accident Monday August 1 7, 2009, at the Saying-sensuousness Hydro Power Plant- SSH, workers check in to their daily routines and began the day as usual. On this day also there were more than 100 workers present for the repairs work. Turbine unit 6 was undergoing schedule maintenance and was not In operation.

Turbine 2 was then resynchronized to the grid on March 16 even though the vibration levels were found to be Turbine 2 was put back again into operation on ten August 1 U, even Knowing ten solution AT ten valuations were at a concerning level, this was unavoidable by Rushed as the urgency came when another hydro plant, Brats had a fire outbreak which had caused loss of immunization lines which connects Brats and the Siberian DDCD- Siberian Unified Dispatching Control Center.

Once the switching were carried out as instructed, most of the Ash’s units began operating under the direct control of ALFALFA located at the Siberian DDCD.

Having most of the controls, the Siberian DDCD made the call to enable and start up the Turbine 2. Turbine 2 generated unhealthy operation log shown in Fig, its vibration increased when the turbine moves through or is operated in the “Not recommended” zone, the dotted line represents operation in the “Acceptable” zone, not a specific load.

Source: Sergey Pop [1] 2 FIG 1 : Operating Limit Naturally excessive vibrations are results of operating out of the recommended zone as shown clearly from the Fig 1 above. Vibration levels grew stronger and were extraordinarily high and rising quickly when Turbine 2 unit was put back into operation. Fig 2 data was taken from the plant log which showed the vibration levels had risen to very dangerous levels. Turbine 2 operation log data showed a steady increase in turbine vibration in the months before the accident, vibrations records was approximately four times the acceptable levels.

Source: Sergey Pop [1] FIG 2: Increasing Vibrations With the continuous operation of turbine 2, the vibration levels increased rapidly. It was learnt that vibration control system for unit 2 was installed in 2009, online and was functioning, at some point it was NOT officially accepted for continuous operation, hence SSH operating staffs were not allowed to rely on the produced data. From the table in Fig 2, unit 2 turbine bearing vibration amplitude increased by a 3 factor of 4 within this period & at the moment of the failure, the records showed as much as 840 GM.

With the over use of Turbine 2, visible cracks were seen showing propagation as a result of fatigue cracks in the attachment points of unit 2 cover were plainly visible at the locations where the mass of the turbine was secured to the plant’s structural foundation. At exactly 8. 1 Bam, August 2009 Turbine 2 anchoring lost the ground grip and with a loud bang it caused the 1,860 ton turbine cover to blow off, exposing the naked turbine in its pit with no turbine mountings.

With this exposed situation, the 212-m water head pressure from the dam immediately ejected the turbine rotor from the pit. The rotor while rotating flew across the gallery destroying everything & everyone in its path. Followed on was the flooding of the gallery from the strong water pressure and because it was connected to an open pensions, it damaged the structural steel and brought down the turbine gallery roof. The continuous high water pressure continued to flood the nearby pits and caused turbine failures.

The flooding also caused major electrical short circuits, forcing all the units to emergency shutdown.

Turbine 7 and 9 was still in operation Walt ten navy Taunting, It was learnt Tanat ten plant estate sundown yester failed to trip causing the turbines to submerge underwater, with this happenings, there were extensive damages to the equipment and structure. At this moment of time many of the workers and staffs of the SSH were caught and stranded, some had to swim to escape, some even got washed away violently from the turbine gallery to the river, only a handful of them were rescued.

Another dampening situation for the survivors was when they realized the turbine gallery was not equipped with proper emergency Due to the intense situation and the build up pressure, the chief engineer ordered the gates to be closed manually, this isn’t an easy task and it took 5 heroic working men, in the dark with their flashlights to close the 8 gates manually, they risked their lives for the sake of others.

Huge explosions form the transformers caused massive oil slick spillage, more than 100 metric tons in the Weenies river, causing damage to the environment and killing about 400 tons of fishes, creating an unbalance and unhealthy marine echo-system. This disaster shocked the entire world as everyone watches the broadcast of the incident.

Within 24 hours of the disaster, more than 1500 rescue workers were aspirated from across the country to the location ordered by the Ministry of Russian Federation for Civil Defense, sadly only 14 survivors were rescued in this operation.

The final death toll had risen to 75 most of which were the ones working either on the turbine gallery or in the flooded rooms. 4 Findings – Possible cause of failure Investigations were carried out extensively to find the possible root cause which had contributed to the disaster, forensic investigation revealed some interesting findings after running through thorough examinations on the bolts of the Turbine 2 foundation. The bolts were found to be broken and fatigue damage covered an average of 65% of a bolt’s cross sectional area.

Surprisingly some of the bolts did not show any traces of nut breaking, which indirectly to everyone’s mind understands that the nuts were never installed from the beginning, how was this possible? What went wrong in this part of the machine maintenance? Why was there no serious action taken to manage this matters? Another stronger and valid investigation carried out by Russian’s Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Orchestration) released a report on October 3, blamed entirely n poor management and technical flaws for the accident. ] Continuous operation on Turbine 2 caused higher vibration, 4 times the maximum the limit.

The manufacturer ELM the SST. Petersburg metal works gave the Turbines a 30 year of service life, further investigations revealed Turbine 2 had 29 years and 10 months on the 17 August 2009. The initial explosion was believed to have damaged the safety system which should have shut down the plant and with the malfunction which had contributed to the catastrophe.

Social effects of the Tragedy This tragedy has proven very hard for the Russians to accept, many of the effected families who have cost their loved ones will never forget this black day, children’s who have lost their fathers, wives who have lost their husbands and mothers who have lost their sons, it’s an unexplainable moment to describe what they have gone through. Nothing can Drill tenet lost Dacca to Tie.

Immediately rater ten sad tragedy a wee scale campaign was carried out in the bid to help the sufferings.

Rushed Company, operator of the hydro plant, allocated about 300 million rubles whereas the Khakis government and insurance companies have signed about 100 million rubles for these purposes. Other charity organizations came in with extended arms providing their contributions as well. Families who needed flats, flats were bought and provided, most received compensation in connection with the loss of their bread- winner. Effected students had options to study on a free of charge basis or receive compensation for educational expenses.

Marking the first anniversary of the tragic accident at the Saying-sensuousness Hydro-Electric Power Station, a memorial service was offered for the relatives of the Another physiological effect of the tragedy on the same day, created panics which then continued to shake the local population. Initially the local authorities had lost control of the situation surrounding the residential area near the hydro plant; many families in panic situation were picking up kids from recreation camps and buying emergency essentials.

Prices on gas, grocery and many other essential daily goods were increased unnecessarily for the sake of profit making, this was later brought under control and those irresponsible were penalized. Authorities had to spend a lot of time and effort on assuring public worries and refuting false information about the accident. 5 Economic effects of the Tragedy The immediate effects after the accident had caused spike in electricity prices in Siberia, which had dampened recovery for companies in the region.

They had to face serious production issues when the disaster took place; in fact the situation had forced them to even pay higher electricity charges in order to continue with operations.

Russian president Dimmit A. Maddened issued a decree requesting regulators to ensure electricity supplies to industrial users from other power plants and to prevent price increases. As for Rushed, owner of the plant experienced serious drop in its share prices and had lost millions in which was forecasted to continue for the years to come.

With this unavoidable situation, the Russian government and Rushed had to pay compensation to the victim’s families and also to the less fortunate survivors. [2][6] [8] Legal aspects of the Tragedy Kangaroos and Kayaks , the 2 major aluminum smelters in Russia are the main customers of Rushed.

In due of the disaster in Saying-sensuousness power plant, both the companies have lost millions in production capacity and damages; hence they filled a lawsuit against Rushed claiming close to $792,500.

However the lawsuit was dismissed by The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals. The lawsuit had undergone 2 rounds because the dispute was earlier remanded for reconsideration. The trial over Russian’s largest hydrophone plant was carried out and found 7 men guilty against whom criminal charges were filled facing 7 years in prison each. From the 7 people convicted, one of them was the plant’s former head Nikolas Involve. All of them were found to have breached the safety rules and regulation in which had contributed to the disaster.

Environmental effects of the Tragedy As we have read from the disaster, the major snort occults or explosions Walton ten transformers Ana caused major 011 spillage trenching along the Weenies River, killing as much as 400 tons of trout’s in two fisheries and polluting the ecosystem of the marine life. Immediate actions were taken by rescue team which was dispatched by relevant authorities. They used special chemicals spread by helicopters to congeal oil that was later manually removed from the water.

With their quick response and action, they managed to minimize the environmental damage caused by the oil spills; the oil spill was finally removed by 25th August 2009. If the pollution in the river was not handled fast enough, the damage to the overall environment could have lead to more deaths which could also include humans who rely on clean drinking water source from the river. 6 Improvement for consideration From the disaster many areas can be identified as loop holes which indirectly has contributed to the disaster, they are listed below with some suggested improvement: 1] 1 .

Install and enable important Vibration Protection Meter Unit for the turbines which in directly should be wired to the existing electrical safety system and alarms the entire plant or even stops the operation of the turbines, through this way everyone on the maintenance or management level will at least be aware and ready to take action of repairs or improvements before it gets bad. 2. Carry out critical analysis inspection regularly, this way besides visual inspection, data can be populated over time when the turbines or any other critical equipment is in operation for a period of time.

This kind of inspections should be incorporated in one of the regular maintenance inspection. 3.

To implement regular preventive, predictive and planned maintenance activities focusing on critical areas like the mounting of the turbine base, cooling system of the turbines, temperature analysis during operation, cavitations of bearings, bearings of he turbine shaft and total electrical safety system – simulating the emergency stop of the system and testing all other tripping device which may safe life when time to come.

Proper maintenance inspection sheet should be developed to cater all the issues in the plant. 4. Improvise the current safety system which somehow had failed during the incident, a more analyzed robust or redundant safety system should be introduced with backup diesel generator built in and able to kick in when the mains fail. 5.

Turbines were classified by makers to operate for a recommended 30 years of fife span, even having this type of recommendation, the owner of the turbines should understand the risks of forcing the older turbines to stretch longer than its ability, in this sense the company needs to be educated of the risks involved if the decision goes on, like Turbine 2, it was close to its aging limit 29 years and 10 months, yet the decision was to go on, it should have been avoided form the beginning. . Budget allocation is important for obsolete parts, not taking this into yearly budgeting plans can spell danger in the long run, and the company needs to be well aware of allocating maintenance budget wisely. . It’s wise to analyze and evaluate the current design and plant equipment setup, there may be some design flaws which can be improved, e. G.

Here were not enough exit points during the disaster, and probably it coo a nave save more lives Tanat cay, another eagles Ana to De looked at are ten failed close and fail open controls on the gate valves, during the outage, these valves didn’t close and was left open for the water to continue flooding the gallery, improvement on the aspects of control is needed. 7 8.

Carelessness and negligence were also another contributing factor, skills, susceptibilities and proper understanding of the hazards in the plant need to be instilled in every employer and employees, practice continuous awareness, guide and educate the down liners, practice safety at all times, carry out and plan proper safety drills, appreciate and recognize efforts form hard working employees. 9.

Plan properly on cost savings plans, do not bypass the necessary and important parts of the safety in equipment, usually maintaining important machines involves high cost, the company cannot gamble the lives of employees or workers when it comes to decision making.

10. In most companies, the very usual problems employees of all level has are the Communication skills, it was very clear also when employees who had realize the performance of the turbines, didn’t take the liberty of alerting the management or vice-versa management didn’t want to know about it.

It could have been improved with proper communication, be it verbal or visual it has to be managed properly from the beginning. 1 1 . A better and a structural operation method should have been implemented like organizing a 2 or 3 hourly operation and machine inspection with proper data’s taken for review, proper handing over of susceptibilities and duties to another shift are crucially important, usually this kind of hand over should be managed in a more written and visual manner. 12.

Operational drills of equipment was never taken into consideration, e. . If such a machine failed what are the important next steps to be taken, what are the impact to operational aspects with series of actions or consequences to recognize when they had reached full emergency mode Conclusions The first reaction that was provoked in me was extreme sympathy for the victims and corporate wrongdoings. If proper care and clear risk assessment and evaluation were carried out with the plant equipment and machine condition, disaster would have probably been avoided.

It was the government of Russian’s responsibility to make sure that there were no mistakes committed in hydro power plants, and not to allow bypass of safety precautions required on the critical equipments. The total 75 lives lost, structural damages, environmental pollution and many other related incidents could have been avoided.

I would conclude that this tragic disaster was a manmade disaster. Lessons learnt from this tragic accident, management and employees play an important role in ensuring the safety of the people and machinery.