Colbún has awarded Brüel & Kjær Vibro a contract to retrofit four hydropower stations on the Aconcagua river basin with protection and condition monitoring equipment.
The hydropower stations to be monitored are the 30MW Chacabuquito, 39MW Los Quilos, 88MW Aconcagua (Blanco and Juncal) and 60MW Hornitos.
The cascade power stations currently have units fitted from five different manufacturers. The Hornitos and Blanco units already have fully functioning Brüel & Kjær Vibro monitoring equipment installed (VIBROCONTROL 4000 and VIBROCONTROL 6000 Machine Protection Systems), which will be re-used. The remaining systems will be replaced by Brüel & Kjær Vibro monitoring systems.
Under the terms of the deal with Colbún, Brüel & Kjær Vibro will also install vibration monitoring sensors on the guide bearings and the combined thrust bearings on all the machines except those where the existing sensors will be re-used. The Brüel & Kjær Vibro Compass 6000TM condition monitoring platform will be centrally installed at the Los Quilos hydropower station to remotely monitor all machines.
