WAPA votes to buy spare part for boiler in case pump fails
Published: August 31, 2012
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ST. CROIX - V.I. Water and Power Authority officials at a board meeting on Thursday voted to purchase a spare part - a boiler feed water pump - for one of the units on St. Croix, to be used as needed to minimize any potential down time should the existing pump go out.
The $269,363 boiler feed pump that the board voted to buy from Sulzer Pumps is for the Unit 24 Heat Recovery Steam Generator.
A heat recovery steam generator captures steam that would otherwise escape and recycles it to produce water and electric without using more fuel oil.
WAPA Executive Director Hugo Hodge Jr. said that the boiler feed water pump was the part that failed on a unit on St. Thomas last year, crippling the authority's ability to make potable water for a time.
Noting that it can take months to get one of the pumps fabricated, Hodge said officials thought it would be "prudent" to get the spare part to have on hand to minimize any down time if the part on the health recovery steam generator should break.
The Unit 24 Heat Recovery Steam Generator is different than the one that is on St. Thomas, so the parts are not interchangeable, officials said.
At Thursday's meeting, the WAPA governing board also voted to:
- Increase a purchase order with Foster Wheeler VI for inspection, maintenance and repairs of Unit 11 and 13 boilers on St. Thomas by $139,000, to a total of $214,000. The extra money was for emergency repairs to bring Unit 11 back online to meet the water demand and for inspecting and repairing corroded tubes in the Unit 13 boiler.
- Approve a $551,000 payment to Arcadis for the stack testing project at the Randolph Harley Facility on St. Thomas.
- Approve an extension of a new project completion date, from Feb. 28, 2012, to June 30, 2012, on a contract with AMP Cherokee to supply and install continuous emissions monitoring systems on combustion turbines 22 and 23 on St. Thomas.
- Approve an extension of a new project completion date from Jan. 31 to May 30 on a contract with Arcadis to conduct compliance tests at the Richmond Estate Generating Facility on St. Croix.
Also during the meeting, the board expressed its appreciation to the utility's personnel for their work on five projects that were dedicated in a special ceremony Wednesday.
Hodge said that "there's not enough we can do to show our employees our appreciation."
The projects, all on St. Croix, represent upgrades to help the utility better serve customers, Hodge said.
The projects that were dedicated during Wednesday's ceremony were the Richmond water tank rehabilitation; the first phase of the Christiansted underground project to bury power lines; the Richmond Substation upgrade; the mixed oxidant chlorine plant installation; and the Richmond water standpipe.
In other discussion, the board heard Cecil Daniel, a WAPA water plant operator shift leader, describe his job during the "WAPA Working For You" segment of the meeting.
- Contact Joy Blackburn at 714-9145 or email jblackburn@dailynews.vi.
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