[26033] in Hotline Meeting
RE:Boiler outage
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (jjmorey@MIT.EDU)
Tue Dec 13 12:11:27 1994
From: jjmorey@MIT.EDU
To: shutdowns@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 1994 12:11:08 EST
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Date: Tue, 13 Dec 94 12:46:16
From: sirianni@MIT.EDU (Vicky Sirianni)
To: Plant-Notify@MIT.EDU
Subject: CUP Boiler Outage
CENTRAL UTILITY PLANT BOILER OUTAGE
On Monday Morning December 12, 1994 an unfortunate sequence of events
resulted in a major reduction in steam production at the Central Utility
Plant. This occurrence was a result of unexpected operational problems
which are attributable to the new control systems that have been
installed on each of the boilers during the previous eight months.
Though these control systems have been being put into operation over the
last six months, the steam demand has only recently been large enough to
observe the control systems response to multiple boiler operation with
high steam demand. There are two systems which operate in concert to
allow safe plant operation; one is the flame safety system(unique to
each boiler) and the other the overall plant control system.
The difficulties yesterday began with a single boiler outage caused by
its flame safety system sensing an unacceptable pressure value in the
fuel oil system which provides oil fuel for combustion to the boiler
burners. The loss of this boiler created a large fluctuation in the
fuel oil system pressure which caused another boiler outage. At this
time there were three boilers operating and thus two went of line
leaving only one to respond to the campus demand. The remaining boiler
was unable to meet this demand. The Plant personnel immediately
responded to these problems and executed the time consuming process of
restoring the steam pressure to its normal operational value. This was
achieved in the early afternoon, but the initial problem began at 8 am
prior to completing the weekly warm-up of the buildings. This
exasperated the situation which resulted in an unacceptable climate in
many buildings throughout the day.
We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. Be assured at this
time plant personnel are expeditiously addressing the problem to
minimize a reoccurrence.
Thank you for your patience,
V. V. Sirianni
Director
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