Inspection of a hydropower tunnel using remotely operated vehicles (ROV): A 5-year case study
- Pennsylvania Rural Electric Association and Allegheny Electric Cooperative, Inc., Harrisburg, PA (United States)
Since commercial operation in 1988, the 21 MW Raystown Hydroelectric Project, William F. Matson Generating Station in central Pennsylvania, has used several different methods to inspect the condition of the 283-meter (930-foot) long, 3.65-meter (12-foot) diameter, concrete-lined tunnel. These inspections have been required to meet the FERC license conditions and the separate Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District and the Licensee, Allegheny Electric Cooperative, Inc., of Harrisburg, PA. Since the tunnel and connected 168-meter (550-foot) long steel penstock are the only water passage to the two-unit generating plant, any intrusive inspection requires an outage, thus the optimal inspection technique minimizes the plant downtime. Inspections have included a lengthy and costly dewatered tunnel walk through, an underwater inspection using commercial divers and hand-held video, and most recently three annual inspections using three different types of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) supplied by vendor services. Each inspection concentrated on the examination of the condition of the tunnel concrete, including radial cracks and condition of construction joints, longitudinal crack propagation, aggregate erosion and concrete patch condition. Use of a computerized database program for mapping will also be discussed as a useful tool. This paper details experience with each of these methods with an emphasis on lessons learned and applications for the hydro industry.
- OSTI ID:
- 220205
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9507190-; TRN: 96:000708-0287
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waterpower 1995: international conference, San Francisco, CA (United States), 25-28 Jul 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Waterpower`95. Volume 1-3; Cassidy, J.L. [ed.]; PB: 2869 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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