Marthinusen & Coutts, a division of Actom, recently completed a major repair at Eskom’s Ingula pumped storage hydro-electric plant. The contract involved the complete rewind of a 373 MVA stator for one of Ingula’s four 14-pole motor-generators. According to Richard Botton, the company’s managing director, the 342 MW unit is among the biggest in South Africa with a core diameter measuring 5 m, a core length of 3,2 m and a rotor mass of 500 t. As the stator was located deep in the turbine floor, all the winding was required to be conducted on site. In this complicated repair, each replacement coil set was fitted, connected and brazed on-site from pre-manufactured and pre-packed components. The most painstaking process, conducted to the highest standards, was the resistive brazing on 1824 joints. The work was carried out by a 14-man team, completing the work within 100 days on site.
Contact Richard Botton, Marthinusen & Coutts, Tel 011 607-1717, richardb@mandc.co.za
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