Keystone 1

As promised, I've decided to create a series of short posts detailing the daily activities during the latest install. I am currently starting an install at Keystone Generating Station near Indiana, Pennsylvania.  Brett and I are tasked with getting the system install in under two weeks, we'll see how that goes.

Day 0 for every install is a travel day.  Usually a rather long day involving traveling from Northern Colorado to the hotel near our site.  The trip to Pittsburgh was rather uneventful for myself; Brett had a tough time traveling through snow-induced rush hour to the airport.  It took him 3x loner to make the trip.  That sucks.  Pennsylvania has been dubbed as Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama in the middle.  Naahhh, well yeah it's true.  Definitely rural and low-income towns, based on the condition of the homes.  In their defense, the economy in this region has been hit hard over the past 25 years, as manufacturing has left and nothing has taken its place.  The people have been very friendly, thus far (aside from the weirdo at the bar last night).  Just a rather sub-standard Comfort Inn to call home for the next two weeks, again nothing spectacular.  At least we've become regulars at the neighboring Ruby Tuesdays next door.  Thanks in part to the amount of booze we drank last night (nice to drink at a lower latitude, especially in MN (Montevideo), but that's another story).

So for today, we had to meet our contacts (boring), move some of our equipment to the level in which we'll be working (boring, boring), and of course plant training (Good God, BORING!!!).

Training on the computer.

 

 

 

 

After training, we went up to level 8 and got started on the job tasks.  This entailed pulling 800 feet of fiber from our "MDC," and the Rack (80 feet below and a whole bunch, many feet to the west).  Normally this task is rather easy and may take an hour to complete.  Not today, it took nearly seven hours to complete.  Lots of bends and no pull boxes to help the transfer of the fiber.

Stuffing Fiber Down

That was about for today's activities.  Not too much to report for the first day,as usual.  10 hours on the feet and lots of cold, as this is an outdoor boiler.  Should be a not-so-balmy 30 degrees for the rest of our trip, plus a few days of rain/snow.  Good thing I picked up some Airborne tablets today.

A peek inside of the boiler.  Gonna be off for the next week.

Tomorrow should be more "exciting."  Hope this helps in providing an insight into what is done for installs.  See y'all tomorrow!!

Thank you for reading,

Kevin