http://www.scribd.com/doc/66736429/2011-Sept-letter-from-Valero-to-TNMP
Posted on 09/29/2011 5:33:06 AM PDT by thackney
The CEO of refiner Valero is telling the electric grid operator that serves its Texas City refinery it needs to do more to improve power reliability.
Valero’s Texas City refinery has been hit by four major power outages this year, each caused by problems with the power transmission and/or distribution equipment owned and operated by TNMP.
The outages, which hit other Texas City refineries including facilities owned by BP and Marathon, led to equipment shutdowns and flaring as the companies scrambled to burns off dangerous emissions. In one instance Texas City officials declared a shelter-in-place when emissions levels became dangerously high.
In a leter of the CEO of TNMP and its parent company, PNM Resources, Valero CEO William Klesse said he is concerned that the companies are not doing enough preventive maintenance, or PM, on the power grid in Texas City.
“Even though TNMP has made efforts to address the April and May power outages, with these recent incidents, we remain very concerned about TNMP’s focus on PM work and the reliability of your equipment,” Klesse said in the letter (see it below). “We believe that all four of the power outages discussed above could have been prevented by a more rigorous focus on PM for TNMP’s insulators and transformer, as well as a commitment to following written procedures for maintenance work. These are serious events.”
Klesse asked for a meeting the PNM/TNMP executives “to discuss these issues and ensure that there is the proper committment to and focus on PM work.”
The April and May outages were caused by “flashovers” where a build-up of debris on insulators allowed certain lines and equipment to ground. TNMP used power washers to clean off the insulators – something that normally isn’t required during normal rainfall patterns — but Klesse notes in the letter the transformers involved in the incidents should have been better able to isolate the outages.
On July 25 there was another outage that occurred when TNMP was working with Valero to remove a transformer at the Bayview Substation in Texas City. This led to the shut-down of Valero’s coker uint.
Most recently, on Sept. 22, TNMP tranformer at the Cherokee Substation failed, leading to the shutdown of several large electric motors at the refinery and several processing units. The same happened to BP and Marathon’s facilities, all of which had to activate flares.
Refiners are usually fined when they activate their flares.
Earlier this month PNM said it would sell its retail electric business, First Choice Power, in order to focus on less volatile businesses. The announcement moved PNM a step closer to investment grade.
Texas City also always has a daily explosion or fire of some sort. Freepers used to panic that anything that happened there was terrorism.
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. Texas city is always on fire.
And we’re right proud of our fire and explosions, bigger than anybody else’s.
Since April 16, 1947...
Only because the Clark Refinery at Blue Island was finally shut down.
On the 18th, I was in TC with my Red Cross-trained parents -- leading stunned, wandering adult survivors into their first aid station. Nearly got trapped when a burning oil storage tank split open.
Had nightmares for years -- and always broke out in a sweat at the sound of one of the old mechanical sirens. Advent of the electronic sirens -- with all their weird sounds -- was a genuine blessing.
But I worked my way through college, doing construction on TC plants.and there was still evidence of April 16, 1947 around ...if you knew where to look...
I think you have to go nuclear to get explosion bigger than Texas City has experienced.
The Texas City Disaster, April 16, 1947
http://www.local1259iaff.org/disaster.html
ANFO does the job, f’sure...
He should fire the one he has now.
My guess is his posting in Fuel Fix have no editor, unlike his work in Houston Chronicle.
I took a closer look. I see more of what you mean.
At least run the posting through something as basic as MS Word Spell Check.
I’m quite sure my husband’s uncle died in a Texas City explosion in the last 10 years or less. It was kind of weird, in that I never heard much about what happened exactly. I remember the explosion made the news, but I think he was the only one killed and I’m not too sure they ever found his body.
Was that the 2005 BP explosion?
Several died.
Search 2005 BP Texas City Explosion
You will find lots of info.
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