Enemalta accepts second turbine damage report

Enemalta has announced that the second report into the damaged steam turbine at the Delimara Power Station extension had been accepted, and testing is scheduled to resume on Tuesday.

The announcement comes in the wake of the rejection of an earlier report regarding the damaged steam turbine, which Enemalta had rejected on the grounds that it did not satisfactorily explain the cause of the damage.

Just last week, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had said that BWSC's second report into the steam turbine damage was received by Enemalta, and was being reviewed by Enemalta and a group of international independent experts.

On Monday, Enemalta confirmed that "the final report on the root cause of the damage to the steam turbine, prepared by BWSC and Dresser Rand was submitted to Enemalta and reviewed by its consultants DNV KEMA. "

Enemalta added that the consultants in question have "endorsed the conclusions of this report together with the root causes of the failure of the steam strainer and the damage to the steam turbine."

The consultants, according to Enemalta, have also endorsed the mitigation measures taken by BWSC to prevent a re-occurrence.

It added that on Sunday, the generating plant at the Delimara extension "was re-started in preparation for the carrying out of the performance tests which are expected to start tomorrow afternoon and are anticipated to take about three days to complete."

"These performance tests will be carried out in the presence of, and under the supervision of, Enemalta and DNV KEMA engineers."

After the satisfactory completion of these tests, the Corporation will be able to takeover the Delimara Power Station extension, Enemalta said.