Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1537166.015 - Calpine Operating Services Company, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Corpus Christi Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 6:30 p.m. on June 18, 2021, an employee was working for a firm that operated electric power generation facilities. He was working at a natural gas-fired power plant. He and a coworker were restoring a natural gas filter system at the power plant, by aligning valves after a maintenance crew had replaced filter media. This system separated liquids from the natural gas before the natural gas was burned as fuel gas to heat water and produce steam for turbines. This was Filtering Unit A. It had been taken offline for the filter media replacement. It was a model number 95V-W12A-I-18-550-WP vertical dry gas scrubber, with tag number ONG01FA. Once the filter change had been completed, there were two draw bolts that should have been tightened to 354 lb-ft (480 newton-meters) of torque. The workers were not aware of the manufacturer's torque requirements. They used crescent wrenches to tighten the bolts. They did not use a torque wrench or a pneumatic tool. There were additional spacing tolerance requirements of which the workers were unaware. When they placed the natural gas coalescing filter vessel back into service, the vessel lid blew off. It struck the employee and knocked him off a scaffold. He suffered blunt force trauma, and he was killed.

Keywords: Blunt force, Blunt force trauma, E PTD (power generation), Electrical, Fall, Flying Object, Inadequate Maint, Natural Gas, Pressure Vessel, Scaffold, Struck By, Training, Traumatic