POWER August 2014 - 38

MARMADUKE AWARD
2. A new home. The two Alstom turbine generators are shown here, having arrived at the
end of a long journey from the old plant. Courtesy: KOMIPO
unplanned outage for the other three units.
Still, as anyone who has conducted a
major repair or refurbishment project can
attest, taking apart a plant that has been running
for 15 years carries with it a lot of risks
and unexpected events. Among other challenges,
specialized lifting equipment had to
be custom-designed to move several critical
elements of the plant.
Though the project staff was fully committed,
it had limited experience with this
sort of work. Certain problems could not be
avoided, and some damage to plant components
occurred during the breakdown despite
extensive protective measures-again,
something to be expected when taking apart
a plant with this much mileage on it.
Safety was also a key concern because the
unusual nature of the job was sure to present
many unforeseen risks. To meet this challenge,
KOMIPO implemented rigorous accident prevention
techniques across all job sites.
cause of the need to increase local generation
and district heating capacity.
Making It Happen
It was easy enough to propose moving a
nearly 500-MW power plant, but making it
happen was another thing entirely.
KOMIPO assembled a team to tackle the
challenge. Hyundai Engineering provided the
project engineering, while Kumho E&C and
Keangnam Enterprises would handle the dismantling,
transport, and construction. Alstom
provided an upgraded compressor and a new
combuster for the gas turbine, upgrades to the
steam turbine and control system, and district
heating integration. KEPCO KPS handled
the disassembly and maintenance of the turbine
as well as the additional upgrade work.
KOMIPO handled its own procurement and
maintained overall control of the project.
KOMIPO brought back many of the staff
and contractors who had been involved in
the construction of Boryeong CCPP Unit 4,
including Alstom and Hyundai Engineering.
This was necessary in part because many of
the plans and blueprints from the original
construction had been lost, and differences
were discovered in the plant from those plans
that were available because of later improvements
and changes.
The project began in September 2009. The
first hurdle was figuring out how to break
down Unit 4 safely, without damaging the
components, and without disrupting the operations
of the rest of the plant.
Unit 4 was an Alstom KA24 power block
consisting of two dual-fuel GT24 gas turbines,
each with a triple-pressure Doosan
38
Heavy Industries heat-recovery steam generator
feeding a single Alstom STF30C threecasing,
triple-pressure reheat steam turbine.
All of these components would be reused in
the new Incheon CCPP Unit 3.
But Unit 4 was also only one block of the
four-unit Boryeong CCPP, and the rest of the
plant had to continue operating during the
project. This meant that the components of
Unit 4 had to be carefully disconnected from
the common-use facilities without disrupting
normal operation. Every single part to be removed
had to be identified, a meticulous plan
had to be drafted to determine the order for
each task, and this plan then had to be coordinated
with Boryeong CCPP's operating schedule
so that the impact on operations would be
minimized. For the most part, the work had to
be conducted during periods of low demand
on weekends and in the middle of the night.
This proved so challenging that the initial
relocation and construction schedule was delayed
considerably beyond the original dates.
To minimize the delay, KOMIPO organized
a Safe Facility Dismantling Task Force Team
that developed a methodology to separate
systems safely within the shortest possible
time after comprehensive examination of related
facility impacts.
The demands on the KOMIPO employees
and contractors were considerable, but many
of them voluntarily gave up weekends and
took night shifts to keep the project moving.
The staff took ownership of the job and carried
out their work with a full sense of responsibility.
As a result, though the initial
schedule was delayed, in the end the dismantling
work was completed without a single
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Community Outreach
Not everyone was initially in favor of the
relocation project, however. During the time
the Boryeong CCPP has been in operation,
the formerly suburban site has been overtaken
by urban sprawl, and the plant is now
surrounded by large-scale residential development.
And at the Incheon site, air quality
was already poor because of numerous industrial
activities in the area.
Public opinion on the proposed relocation
was initially fiercely opposed, largely
because of fears that a new power plant in
Incheon would worsen already compromised
air quality. To address these concerns,
KOMIPO committed to implementing stateof-the-art
emissions upgrades at the new
plant and maintaining emissions well below
national standards.
The company eventually resolved the public
opposition by meeting with local officials,
including regional citizen groups, local autonomous
bodies, and regional representatives.
Moving Day
With the disassembly under way, KOMIPO
had to address the next step: Getting the components
the 180 kilometers from the old site
to the new one.
The disassembled plant was packed into
7,500 separate modules for shipment. Modules
that were small enough to move by
road were loaded onto trucks and trailers. Of
these, the smallest could be transported on
the national expressways to the new site in
about 4 hours. Larger shipments had to travel
on local roads, a slower trip that took about
7 hours.
The largest elements, however, including
the turbines and generators, had to go by
POWER | August 2014
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POWER August 2014

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