U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tulsa District Engineering and Construction Division, work on repairs at Keystone Lake Hydropower plant.

Photo By Stacey Reese | Tiffany Natividad, Ft. Gibson Lake natural resource specialist and Jay Surman, Chief of Hydropower Engineering for Tulsa District look down into the stator windings on unit 1 at Keystone Lake Powerhouse. The large rotor behind them has been pulled in order to expose the windings which are being replaced due to an electrical fault which caused a fire in the unit. The project will take approximately 18 months and will enable Tulsa District to continue to provide safe, reliable, energy efficient electricity to rural customers for many years into the future.  

TULSA, OK, UNITED STATES

10.27.2021

Story by Tiffany Natividad 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District

TULSA, Ok. – Engineers with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tulsa District Engineering and construction (E&C) Engineering Branch and a specialized team from the USACE Hydroelectric Design Center (HDC) visited Keystone Lake Hydropower plant on October 19. 2021 to review plans and specifications for the planned replacement of one of the generators.

These repairs are necessary because during operation of the hydropower machine on May 10, 2019, a generator stator winding experienced an electrical fault that resulted in a fire in Unit Number 1. The stator winding is the mechanism that provides the electromagnetic charge to power the generator. After the fire, the unit was inspected and maintenance work was tried to repair the damaged coils, but it was finally determined that the stator winding required a complete rewind.

Tulsa District established a Project Delivery Team (PDT) to assess, plan, and execute the rewind of Unit 1. Stephen Isaacs, design manager for the Tulsa District, is the PDT lead and he brought together the entire team consisting of several departments within USACE including: Engineering, Project Management, Operations, Cost Estimating, Contracting, Security, Office of Counsel, Resource Management, Real Estate, Regulatory, Environmental, Biology, and Construction.

“Each Hydropower plant is unique in size, materials, and how it was designed and constructed, Therefore, each unit requires a rigorous inspection and study in order to properly provide engineering products to be applied to repairs, upgrades, and rehabilitations of these complicated machines” says Jay Surman, Chief of Hydropower Engineering.

The Design Engineers are from the Hydroelectric Design Center, the USACE National Center for Expertise in hydroelectric engineering services, stationed in Portland, Oregon. They performed all the calculations to engineer the right arrangement and amount of copper bars needed to replace the coils inside the generator.

The Contracting department planned for procurement efforts and put together a contract for construction. The Real Estate, Regulatory, Environmental, and Biology departments all reviewed the work for compliance with Federal, state, and local laws and regulations to ensure the job being performed has little to no impact to things outside the powerhouse.

The Construction crew will ensure that the rewind is constructed and executed according to the HDC’s plans and specifications. “Once that is all done, Operations will take the machine back and start making that important and much needed electrical power for the next 50 years!” says Surman.

The project will take approximately 18 months and will enable Tulsa District to continue to provide safe, reliable, and energy efficient electricity to rural customers for many years into the future.

• Date Taken: 10.27.2021
• Date Posted: 10.27.2021 19:09
• Story ID: 408164
• Location: TULSA, OK, US