Effect of Roseires Dam Heightening on Thrust Bearing of the Power Generation Units

Abstract

After more than forty years without any apparent problems on their com-bined guide and thrust bearings, the seven 40 MW hydro-generators of RO-SERIS Hydroelectric Power Plant were failing. The source of the failure (which happened after heightening the dam from 40 m to 50 m) was the over heat of the thrust bearing pads. This caused considerable losses of power with high costs. The solution proposed by the operation engineers was operating the thrust bearing high pressure pumps (In case of any prob-lems with hydrodynamic lubrication- insufficient load carrying capacity- the hydrostatic jacking system been used permanently in order to increase reliability of the bearing). The direct cost was estimated to be SD 5,000,000,000 (Pumps operating and power losses).