VERO BEACH — An explosion at the Vero Beach power plant on Monday caused an estimated $10,000 worth of damage and took down two of the plant’s five generators.
A sidewall tube in the Unit 3 generator at the Vero Beach Power Plant exploded on Monday, spewing steam, and causing damage.
After VeroNews.com received a reader tip about the explosion, City Manager Jim O’Connor confirmed that over the Labor Day holiday, while four of the plant’s generators were running to handle peak load, the sidewall tube in the Unit 3 generator exploded.
Unit 3 went down and the steam and pressure from the blowout damaged a switch on nearby Unit 4, shutting that generator off as well, according to O’Connor.
O’Connor said he found out about the explosion Tuesday morning when he returned to work after the holiday.
“It sounds better than when I first heard about it,” he said, “because when I first heard about it no one had any pricing.”
No one was injured and the explosion did not cause a power outage. There was no fire, no fuel spill of any kind and no emergency services were called to the plant, O’Connor said.
“The sidewall tubes, they make a loud noise; they sound bad, but unless somebody’s standing there, no one would typically get hurt,” O’Connor said.
The pressure inside the tubes is between 800 and 900 pounds per square inch. The tubes are routinely inspected and replaced if weaknesses are observed.
“It’s pressurized and it’s steam and moisture would have an effect on the surrounding area,” O’Connor said, adding that the City will need to replace the access door near the generator, which was blown, and the exterior sheet metal, which encased the unit.
“It’s just something that happens. I guess theoretically you could replace them periodically, but the tubes wear from the inside with those pressures and the pressure gets to 800 to 900 PSI. Plus you get the salt in there, we don’t air-condition that area,” O’Connor said. “It only takes one little pinhole and that thing goes. The fact of the matter is sometimes you catch it and sometimes you don’t.”
Unit 4 has already been repaired and the City has the new tube in stock to repair Unit 3. O’Connor said that generator is expected to be up and running by Friday.
Big Blue was dispatched to run by the Orlando Utilities Commission, in accordance with the City’s contract with OUC. This occurs when there are transmission issues on the grid, or when there is not enough power being produced to handle Vero’s peak load. With 90-plus degree temperatures and air-conditioners running all over the City’s territory, OUC notified Vero to crank up its generators.
O’Connor said he’s not sure whether or not OUC’s Stanton 1 and 2 coal plants were running, and he’d heard that the Lakeland plant had also been down. Those two factors could have explained why Vero was told to fire up.
Units 2 and 5 had been down earlier this year for more than a month for a total overhaul, and then were out of service again this summer as some parts gave out and needed to be rebuilt. O’Connor said the combined cycle of Units 2 and 5 has been back up since July. Those units working together are the City’s most cost-effective way to produce power at the plant, as the steam from one unit is captured and used to fuel the other unit.