Combustion inspection (CI)

With the problems at unit EC 7 not completely fixed yet (another balancing action today), unit EC 3 is prepared for a so-called combustion inspection.
This has to be done every 8000 running hours.
In less then a week the burners of the gasturbine will be replaced by new (or refurbished) ones.
Furthermore we can do planned overhaul on other parts of the unit.
The nightshift has drained the main systems and have put locks on valves and switches.
We are going on to cool the steamturbine so the shaft can be stopped.
We keep the vacuum on the condenser so in this way we suck in ambient air via special valves and piping.
In the second phase we stop the vacuum and blow in compressed air into the HP/IP steamturbine.
We have to go on until the metaltemperature of the steamturbine is below 150°C.; after that we may stop the turning gear; this will take until tomorrow morning.

In the front you can see the gasturbine and in the back the steamturbine with its cover taken off.
The big pipes are leading the low pressure steam from the outlet of the Intermediate Pressure steamturbine to the Low Pressure steamturbine.

Now the main overhead crane does not do what the cranedriver wants and the work has stopped with a gasmanifold hanging in the hook.
Service engineer has just arrived.