Spurlock Power Station
The East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) produces electricity for 16 regional power cooperatives, which between them serve one million consumers in 89 countries. Spurlock power station is EKPC's largest power station located in Maysville, KY., on the Ohio River, and has recently completed two wet limestone flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems, each with a new Pennguard® lined chimney. The two FGD systems were fitted to the 325 MW Unit 1 (in service since 1977) and 525 MW Unit 2 (in service since 1981).
In addition of the two FGD systems several options for the chimneys were investigated. Together with Stanley Consultants from Muscatine, EKPC first looked at the possibility of relining the brick flue of the existing Unit 2 chimney. It was found however that the fast construction and commissioning schedule of the FGD retrofit project would not allow a sufficiently long outage to achieve this. EKPC decided to award Karrena International LLC for the design and construction of two 198 m high concrete chimneys, each with a single, Pennguard® lined steel flue.
Construction and lining of the flues
After considering the jobsite layout, the project time schedule and the weather conditions in Kentucky, Karrena International decided that they would build, grit blast and primer coat the steel flue sections on ground level. Once a steel flue was erected by welding these sections together in the windshield, the Pennguard® lining was applied in the erected flue, using a movable work platform. To ensure the quality of the Pennguard® lining installation in the two chimneys, a team of up to three Hadek QA Supervisors was present on site during the surface preparation and lining installation process.
An overview of the process can be seen on page 2 and 3 of the Project Report.
Pennguard® linings reduce fire risk during and after construction
For any power station owner, fire is one of the more serious risks both during the construction of new plant and during operation and maintenance of existing equipment. FGD plants and the chimneys built directly next to the FGD plants are no exception. Ever since the introduction of FGD, a number of large fires have occured in FGD plants in North America, Europe and Asia.
Exponent's study report "Performance of Different Chimney Flue Designs During Large Power Plant Fires" shows how Pennguard® lined steel flues are effectively insulated from overheating, as they are filled with extremely hot smoke from an FGD or power plant fire. For more information, please look at page 4 of the Project Report.
The Study Report is also available on request.