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Electric staff report engine overhaul issues, consider maintenance contract and steam-plant heater repairs
Summary
Electric operations staff reported follow-up issues after recent engine overhauls, discussed potential maintenance-contract options with the engine vendor, and warned of likely near-term repairs to steam-plant heaters that could cause unplanned expenses.
Coffeyville electric staff provided an operational update on July 8 saying the recent overhaul of generation engines has mostly completed but is producing residual equipment issues, and that the city is evaluating a maintenance contract with the engine vendor to reduce costly service calls.
Executive Director of Electric Chris Weiler described recurring problems after the overhaul, saying some engines show minor oil leaks and a temperature gauge issue that "popped up its head again" within about 200 run hours. He advised commissioners that vendor technical visits have cost the city roughly $20,000–$25,000 per call. Weiler said the vendor offers remote-monitoring and maintenance tiers that could reduce repeat on-site visits.
Weiler said the city is also several software updates behind on proprietary control systems and that a recommended software upgrade package could cost roughly $100,000; staff said that failing to update software has limited some engine functionality.
The commission discussed operational and contractual context with regional partners. City Manager Brubaker and staff noted that scheduling outages and dispatching generation are governed in part by regional transmission rules administered by SPP and that the city's agreements with GRDA and SPP affect when overhauls can occur and how engines are dispatched.
Separately, staff reported that the city—urrently operating a steam plant—xperienced a heater failure last week in addition to an earlier heater that has been out since 2018. Director Weiler said the prior decision years ago not to repair a heater (estimated then at about $200,000) is now affecting operations; with a second heater out, boilers must use more fuel to achieve steam and that increases wear on the system. Weiler said staff expect to bring a request for unplanned capital or repair spending to the commission if analysis shows that heater fixes are needed to avoid more costly boiler repairs.
Why it matters: unplanned outages and high-cost vendor service calls can materially affect utility revenues and operating budgets. Weiler said forced outages cause the city to forfeit capacity payments (about $4,000 per day per engine) and to procure replacement energy at market rates, raising the cost of recovery.
Next steps: staff will meet with the engine vendor to review maintenance-package options and pricing; city staff will also evaluate heater repairs at the steam plant and return to commissioners with cost estimates and recommendations. Commissioners discussed adjusting pricing inputs in GRDA contracts annually to better reflect increased operating costs and to reduce overuse driven by market dispatch rules.
