In 2007, WEG’s agility in service, the flexibility in finding the solutions and the smallest delivery time made the difference in providing repair services of a three-phase step-up transformer (195 MVA 20/230 kV) at Jorge Lacerda IV thermal power station in Capivari de Baixo in the state of Santa Catarina. The Power station, which belongs to Tractebel Energia S/A, the largest private company in energy generation in Brazil, had 50% of its production paralyzed due to a problem in one of the two transformers responsible for voltage rise for transmission of energy generated in the power station. In other words, only half of the 366 megawatts produced was available to the integrated energy system of the country and this could result in a series of losses to Tractebel.
WEG accepted the challenge of repairing a transformer from another manufacturer by disassembling the equipment, taking it to the plant, repairing it (which included the complete rewinding) and reinstalling it. All this was done in 120 days, a time considered excellent by the customer, once this same repair generally takes from 180 to 210 days. “WEG has a vertical production – tank, coils and peripheral equipment – which assured agility and, in the case of Jorge Lacerda, delivery of the equipment within a time limit that another manufacturer would not have managed. This agility was fundamental for the power station”, points out Rubens José Nascimento, Systems Maintenance manager at Tractebel.
In February, Tractebel inaugurated São Salvador in the state of Tocantins, yet another power station that counts on WEG equipment. The two transformers installed at the hydro-electric power station have 135.5 MVA with 13.8 voltages rising to 230 kV. “Our supply involves another transformer which will be a reserve. Located at the São Salvador power station, it will further attend to the Cana Brava Substation ”, explains Carlos Diether Prinz, Director of the WEG Transformers unit. The reserve transformer has 170 MVA with 13.8 voltages rising to 230 kV.
