Drains

This is a very important part of unit EC 20.
The turbine drain system.
These are remote controlled valves which open during start-up of the unit.
So in this way the steam coming from the boiler is heating the staempipes and turbine parts in a quiet and easy way.
The heating up of the turbine must be done according to a gradient; otherwise a lot of stress occurs in the steel of the turbine.
The steam and condensed steam (water) is then lead to the condenser.
Once the turbine is heated up enough, the drains are closed.
Sometimes a drainvalve is stuck and in that case we have to open it manually, but at the time the unit is starting up this is not a good place to stay long; a lot of noise and all the pipes are shaking...
This is my last technical Blip for some days; I'm off to Terschelling so the next Blip will be coming from there...