In February, a cleaning process was undertaken on the submarine seawater intake conduits at the Tuxpan III and IV Combined Cycle Power Plant, which is located in the north of the State of Veracruz (Mexico) and entered commercial operation in 2003.
This is the group’s power station with the largest installed power outside of Spain and one of the largest in the country. Water is taken from the Gulf of Mexico for cooling and consumption, which is treated by a water treatment plant with strict controls on discharge temperature and metal content in order to protect the ecosystem surrounding the power plant.
The accumulation of material on the seawater intake conduit had almost halved the effective area of the pipe and, consequently, the flow of cooling water. This had caused a lower-than-normal vacuum in the condensers and a reduction in power, leading to the corresponding increase in specific consumption by the facility overall.
This was the first time that this operation was carried out in Tuxpan, a process that involved shutting down the entire facility, and the Operations and Maintenance divisions of Global Power Generation were both involved.
