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ENERGY INTERNATIONAL
December 2011/January 2012 www.esb.ie/em
ESBI raises its profile across Asia
ASIA PACIFIC IRELAND Business Forum
ESBI Manager Ollie Brogan presented an overview of ESBI ’s activities in Asia at the 2011 Asia Pacific Ireland Business Forum (APIBF), which took place in Suwom South Korea on Thursday and Friday October 13th and 14th. The conference, which is held annually to coincide with the Asia Gaelic Games, focused on opportunities for Ireland in Asia in the context of free trade agreements.
The event has become established as a focal point for leading Irish industrialists and senior business people in the Asia Pacific Region and speakers this year included: the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore TD, the Ambassador of Ireland to the Republic of Korea Dr Eamonn McKee, APIBF Patron Dick Spring, GAA President Christy Cooney, Enterprise Ireland Director Alan Dixon and Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Korea Tomasz Kozlowski.
Asia Gaelic Games
ESBI is an official sponsor of the Asia Gaelic Games, which this year attracted more than 700 players from 27 clubs across Asia. ESBI also sponsored one of the three teams participating from the Arabian Celts GAA Club in Bahrain. The club, which boasts five ESBI staff amongst its members, was formed only four years ago and has grown steadily since. The Celts reached the final of this year’s Asian Gaelic Games only to be narrowly beaten by local team Seoul Gaels. From ESBI playing for the Celts were: John Kelly in goal, corner-back Kevin Mannion, captain and full-back John Gibbons, midfielder Joe Melia and Celts’ second team captain Brendan Stafford. The Arabian Celts were awarded the prestigious Asian GAA Club of the Year 2011 title at the games in Korea and Joe Melia won a coveted Asian Gaelic Games All Star award.
PLAYER PROFILES
John Gibbons A Substation Resident Engineer, John joined the ESBI Bahrain group in 2008 and is currently overseeing the installation and commissioning of 157 power transformers and reactors in the 220kV and 66kV Transmission Development 2007-2011 project and ten power transformers on the Emergency Transformer Replacement Project. Playing full-back in the games, John captained the Arabian Celts to the B competition final only to lose out by three points in the end to Seoul Gaels.
Joe Melia Joe played midfield with the Celts and won a coveted All Star Award for his football display during this year’s tournament. He started working in Bahrain with ESBI six months ago as a Senior HV Cable Surveyor, working as part of a way leave team to obtain consent for the installation of approximately 180km of 66kV cable and 280km of 220kV cable.
Kevin Mannion Kevin joined the ESBI Bahrain team six months ago as a project engineer, working to secure planning and wayleave permissions for the 220kV and 66kV cable works, part of the Transmission Development 2007-2011 Project. At the Seoul tournament Kevin played outstandingly (with a broken finger) in both cornerback and corner-forward positions with the Arabian Celts.
John Kelly Due to an injury, John played in goal at the games and made some exceptional saves, particularly a penalty save against Hong Kong in the quarter final. John joined the ESBI Bahrain group as the Cables Civil Resident Engineer during 2010. He is responsible for over 400km of cable installation relating to 220kV and 66kV cable works.
Brendan Stafford Captain and fullforward for the Arabian Legends, Brendan, made it to the competition final, but his team was narrowly beaten by Asia’s newest GAA club: the Mongul Khans from Mongolia! Brendan joined the Bahrain ESBI team almost three years ago and is working as a Substation Resident Engineer overseeing the construction and commissioning of Al Haddeed 220kV/33kV Substation - an interface substation that will supply 320MW of power to the new GII C Steel plant currently under construction in Bahrain.
Safety Improvement Plan for Turlough Hill and Liffey Stations
AS PART OF ITS Safety Improvement Plan for 2011, Turlough Hill and Liffey Stations organised a safety initiative with the local community. This initiative was suggested by staff and reflects their willingness over the years, to make a contribution with community groups on an ongoing basis. Examples in the past have included a student photo competitions with the winners being selected to be part of an ESB safety calendar, or a mural painting initiative in the Turlough Hill cavern to illustrate what Safety, the Environment and Equality & Diversity means to school children. This year’s suggestion from staff was to carry out a water safety initiative with community groups. This was thought to be especially relevant to young people to make them aware of the dangers of water while acknowledging the fun that can be had with water provided it is carried out in a supervised and controlled manner.
In late September, more than 700 beavers, cubs, scouts, ventures and rovers took part in the annual South Kildare Scout County Camp over three days at the Poulaphouca Reservoir. There was a wide range of activities organised by Group Leaders for the children and these activities included kayaking, archery and go karting. As part of ESB Turlough Hill and Liffey Stations staff commitment to safety in the local community, ESB Lake Warden Peader Moran, delivered an awareness strengthening presentation on water safety and the dangers of the Poulaphouca Reservoir. Also in keeping with ESB ’s staff commitment to safety in the community, ESB made a presentation of First Aid bags to the local groups present at the camp.
Scaling the Heights at Moneypoint
CONSTRUCTED ALMOST 30 years ago, Moneypoint’s chimneys remain the tallest free-standing structures in the country at 218m, or 715ft, tall. The chimneys consist of a reinforced concrete windshield, or outer shell, with an internal brick lining and, as with any civil structure, they require regular inspection and maintenance to keep them in good condition. This is not an insignificant challenge given the size of these chimneys!
Both Chimney 1 and Chimney 2 receive annual inspections to monitor their condition. These inspections are generally of short duration (less than a week) and must coincide with the shut down of the generating units to allow internal and external inspections. If there is sufficient time, minor repairs required may be carried out after the inspections are complete, while more difficult repairs are scheduled for later, longer outages.
Moneypoint Unit 3 underwent a maintenance outage in August 2011 and, as part of the maintenance works, Chimney 2 was scheduled for a detailed steeplejack inspection and repair contract. ESBI Civil and Structural Engineering was commissioned to prepare the enquiry documents and to oversee the works on site on behalf of ESB Moneypoint.
In order to carry out the inspections, the chimneys are initially accessed by the ladders on the external windshield. The Steeplejacks climb the ladders, drawing a small nylon rope and a pulley system which they attach to the top of the chimney. They then draw up steel wire ropes that they use to bring an access cradle up to facilitate the inspections. The external work is very weather dependant as in heavy rain or high winds the access ladders and the cradle cannot be used safely.
To gain full access for the internal and external inspections, a mobile cradle is attached to the top of the chimney. However, this form of access was not sufficient for carrying out the repairs to the external windshield so a temporary access platform was installed around the circumference of the windshield prior to the outage to ensure that sufficient access was in place to allow the repairs to be carried out within the tight outage window.
The Chimney 2 inspection in 2010 revealed a number of minor defects such as cracking to the internal brickwork, Rockwool missing from the expansion joints internally and minor damage to the inside of the base access door protective lining.
The inspection also found that there was a large area of delaminated (or loose) concrete on the external windshield at the top of the chimney. The solution to this problem was to break away all delaminated concrete, mechanically clean all exposed reinforcement steel back to sound metal and to rebuild the area with suitable repair materials.
Following the inspections, all of the above issues were successfully addressed safely, within budget and to programme. This challenging but comprehensive inspection and repair strategy will ensure that the chimneys in Moneypoint are fit for purpose and will continue to dominate the west Clare horizon for many years to come.
