As the global COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact hundreds of countries, dedicated employees of GE Gas Power and FieldCore, Gas Power’s field services arm, mobilized to ensure reliable power for residents and industries in Northwest England.
On 21st January, GE was requested to perform a boroscope inspection at the GT-26, combined cycle gas turbine plant. Following joint reviews by GE Engineering and InterGen (Customer) a team was dispatched immediately. The Crew consisted of OM, TFA’s, commissioning experts as well as Craft, from more than eight countries throughout Europe and as far as Malaysia and India to quickly address the issue and restore power production.
To ensure the continued health and safety of all employees working at the site, our Customer, InterGen, and the GE field services team, implemented several actions, including: additional cleaners and stringent daily cleaning protocols, procurement of extra hand sanitizes and dishwashers and the introduction of daily temperature checks by qualified medical staff. These are in addition to FieldCore’s comprehensive COVID-19 response plan.
Beyond health and safety related to Coronavirus, the team, led locally by Fraser Harrison, Outage Manager, focused intently on industrial safety and executing with Quality.
“We realized before the outage started that COVID-19 was front of mind for all of our employees but we know that the biggest hazards we face daily are the regular activities we do during the work. It was imperative that all of our experts focused on the task at hand, Fraser Harrison said.”
To support this focus on safety, crews conducted more than 50+ hazard hunts, identifying workplace hazards and implementing subsequent controls to ensure safe operations. Barrier management and control of lifting operations with appropriate signage being displayed was to the high standards evident on GT26 outages.
In total, 28,761 manhours were required to complete the scope of work involved in the forced outage. The crew delivered flawlessly, returning this important power asset to service with no safety or quality misses.
“This is another great example of FieldCore and Gas Power working as ONE Team delivering World-Class Execution to the customer. It’s especially rewarding to know that we’re doing critical work when our communities, countries and company need us the most, Fraser Harrison said.”
“Returning the unit back to generation in under 10 weeks without planning proves just how unified and determined our GE and FieldCore teams are.” – Varinder Athi, Senior Project Manager, GE Gas Power
“I would like to pass on my thanks to the GE and FieldCore team who have managed to help complete this outage under exceptional circumstances. From Storm Ciara & Dennis with 90mph gusting winds to the outbreak of Coronavirus the outage has had problems thrown at it from every angle, yet you and the team have dealt with each issue with professionalism and a drive to ensure we completed this outage without disruption. It was a pleasure working with them and hope we can work together again in less testing times.” – Daniel Fosberg, Plant Manager