Condition monitoring provides 30 per cent more cooling tower uptime

The latest condition monitoring technology, developed, supplied and installed by SKF, is helping engineers at Medway Power Station in the UK make significant reductions in downtime due to unexpected failures on the station’s induced draft cooling tower. 

In particular, the integrated condition monitoring system is enabling engineers to assess the real-time performance and functionality of twelve large diameter cooling fans, together with associated drive motors and gearboxes, and to implement a long-term predictive maintenance strategy that has improved uptime by over 30 per cent and delivered tangible cost savings from these business critical systems.

Operated by SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy), Medway Power Station is located on the Isle of Grain on the estuary of the River Medway in Kent. The station uses a combined cycle gas turbine, with a capacity of 690MW that enables it to power around 970,000 homes in the region.

The station has a single cooling tower, with 12 individual induced draft cooling cells. Each is fitted with a motor-driven 6m diameter fan, with fibreglass blades, mounted in a cowl at the top of the cell, to enable cool ambient air to be drawn in from the base of the cell and across heated turbine water as it falls through a series of baffles that maximise heat transfer. The drive motors are located on the outside of the cowls and provide power through gearbox units, which are positioned within the body of each cell.