Mitigating Risk: Work Under Suspended Loads

Mitigating Risk: Work Under Suspended Loads

Ralph Waldrep

Problem Statement

• Employees communicated concern that work was being performed under suspended loads

• Necessary to determine and implement solutions to eliminate any work beneath suspended loads- Ensure employee safety, OSHA and company safety

policy compliance while completing outage objectives

• Challenge to overcome ‘this is how we’ve always done it’, but rather embrace the ‘what if we tried’ mentality

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Situation Prompting Employee Concern

• Raise shaft to the turbine assembly

• In turn, turbine assembly raises 0.5” off of the horizontal keys to allow key removal

• During this process employees would be exposed to suspended load hazards

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Keys

Thrust Assembly

Keys To Success

• Immediate response to employee concerns• Placed all affected work on hold • Assembled diverse, highly engaged, multi-

discipline team - (Field Employees, Projects, Safety, Engineering, etc)

• Identified additional items• Teamwork and Collaboration coupled with

innovative thinking• Outreach to industry partners for input and

potential solutions• documented and tracked each item to resolution

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Keys To Success Cont.

• Safety Over Production- Deviation from schedule and materials to address

concerns resulted in $1M added outage cost - Learning process resulted in 765 hours of outage

extension- Employees expressed appreciation multiple times

throughout the process

• Expectations, Lessons Learned and Best Practices incorporated into future work planning

• Success story shared throughout affected business units and beyond

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Core Services:• Shop Machining Services (rotating components)• Shop Motor refurb, repair, & test run (≥ 200HP) • Shop Breaker repair & refurb• Shop T/G outage support• Field CC Steam T/G outages• Field Simple Cycle CT & Generator outages • Field Transformer maint, refurb, repair, & testing

Core Services:• Shop Machining Services (rotating components)• Shop Motor refurb, repair, & test run (≥ 200HP) • Shop Hydro T/G outage support• Field Hydro T/G outage support• Field Transformer maint, refurb, repair, & testing

Supplemental Services: (Examples)

• Shop Fabrication Services

• Field Machining Services

• Roving Maintenance

• Electrical Field Services







• Dam Safety Services





• Field Non-Generation Projects (electrical, civil, mechanical)



Nose Cone Removal – Pickwick Hydro (PKH)

• Turbine unit placed in resting position on floor to eliminate suspended load

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• Hydraulic jacks were utilized to remove cone from turbine assembly

• Jacks are controlled outside of Load Drop Zone using long hydraulic lines

Nose Cone Removal – PKH






















Placing Turbine Assembly On “Tall” Pedestal – PKH

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Placing Turbine Assembly On “Short” Pedestal – PKH

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Technology Applied At Other Hydro Locations

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Wheeler Hydro (WEH) Unit 9 – Rotor Install

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WEH Unit 9 – Rotor Install Cont.






















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PKH - Telescoping Stands – Outer Head Cover

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PKH - Telescoping Stands – Outer Head Cover






















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PKH - Telescoping Stands Fully Extended






















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PKH - Wicket Gate Removal






















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QUESTIONS

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Documents

Mitigating Risk: Work Under Suspended Loads