Challenges Derailed on Track to Success

In today’s fast paced world, it’s likely that we’ll have more than one thing to work on at any given time. This was the case at Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) St. Charles Energy Center (SCEC) in Waldorf, Maryland where our APM Fossil North teams had a little bit of everything going on!  This project was one of the top three jobs for the Northeast region during the spring season.  It united millwrights on many levels – Six Superintendents, 16 Keymen, 16 Journeymen, and 16 Apprentices.  This is a new site and there were two new GE 7FA05 Gas Turbines and a new D11A Steam Turbine.  According the CPV SCEC website, the plant is a 725-megawatt natural gas-fueled combined-cycle power generation facility. The SCEC generates enough electricity to power more than 700,000 homes. The equipment just went through a DLN 2.6+ upgrade on both Gas Turbines, and Generator Magic Inspections on both Gas and Steam turbines.  On the Steam turbine, the collector rings on the generator field needed to be changed out, and a low-pressure hood inspection was completed.  The generator crews were headed by yet another Superintendent, Jon Barlow, who moved from unit to unit for consistency.  This job was challenging due to the time of year in an area that is tricky to staff, resources in demand, and so many apprentices, but the teams prevailed and excelled.  There were no safety incidents or concerns and everyone remained safe for the duration of the project.  There were no quality issues on the APM side of work and one of the gas turbines is already up and running.  They are still trying to get the second turbine up and running due to instrument and controls concerns and then our team will be demobilizing.  We appreciate every APM employee on site who worked together to keep these jobs on track and succeed together.  Although it took the entire team, thanks to the Superintendents for leading the effort:  GT 12 - Roger Yerdon (DS) and Tom Bernier (NS).  GT 11 - Chris Opanhoske (DS) and Jeff Roberts (NS).  ST 10 - Mike Ornoski (DS) and Fred Hitchcock (NS).