HP warm-up

Today after the so-called "House load" test a well known sound was heard at unit EC 4.
A pile of steam was coming out of the HP warm up valve. The gasket was blown out of the stuffing box.
This one is used to warm up the High Pressure steampipes during start-up of the unit by extracting steam before the turbine, directing it to the cindenser.
So it creates flow in the steampipe while the stopvalves of the turbine are stil closed.
The steam has to be about 40 deg C above the temperature of the steamturbine to prevent thermal stress in the thick turbine material..

As it was planned to stop the unit we decided to repair the valve.

This is aview down through the grating of the turbine floor.

After that the actuator of the valve had to be adjusted because it stopped too early before it reached its closed position. (see the insert)

It's an Auma actuator ; it was purely a coincidence I met some guys of Auma at Terschelling.....

Here in LARGE....