Friday, March 18, 2011

The Witness Test

National Grid conducted its witness test of MWCC’s turbines today, a process that involves reviewing all circuitry, electrical connections and mechanisms to ensure they run properly.
“Everything they’ve done so far looks good,” said an elated Ed Terceiro, MWCC’s resident engineer. As part of the process, both turbines were powered up. At one point, it was noted that the south turbine had already generated 1 megawatt of electricity for the college. By the afternoon, both turbines were spinning for a while as the testing continued.
National Grid will review the test reports and notify the college when the turbines can be turned back on, most likely within a week or so, Terceiro said. At first, the turbines will run intermittently as they are conditioned, before running steadily.
Appropriately, it was a very windy day. According to the National Weather Service, strong west to northwest winds accompanied a cold front in the afternoon, generating wind speeds between 11 and 14 mph and gusts as high as 34 mph. Bring it!


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