Arresting Water Leakage in New GIS Building Using Polywater FST | Utility Experience Mumbai
The Challenge
Heavy water leakage though underground cable entry wall penetrations at a new GIS Substation in a Mumbai power utility. It was determined that to seal the space between cables and wall with various mortars and sealants would not stop potential leakage. It was a serious issue for the Project Department and had to be resolved before the building’s first monsoon season. If not resolved, high volumes of water could enter through these cable entry points of the GIS. The risk of damage to the transformers and other power station equipment would be high and could compromise the supply of power to hundreds of thousands of customers. The solution had to be i.) Easy to apply into the cramped openings filled to 80% capacity with cables, and ii.) To have high mechanical strength to resist high pressure waterflow. Most importantly, the solution needed to be a durable and long-lasting repair.
The Solution
In looking for a solution, the Project Department met with LeakXpert to discuss leakage remediation options. LeakXpert is a professional contractor with years of experience in the repair of transformer oil, water and gas leaks in many electrical power generation, substation and receiving station installations throughout India. The central problem to resolve at this GIS was the high-water head pressure and the ability to create a barrier to water flow coming through multiple cable entry penetrations.
The solution was Polywater FST Foam Duct Sealant. FST has been used to improve infrastructure resiliency around the world such as in rolling stock, renewable energy, wastewater plants, data centers and airport projects amongst others. Polywater FST is a high strength, closed-cell foam technology that resists up to seven (7) metres of water head pressure. It expands ten (10) times after injected into an empty space, and it is light weight (0.1 g/cm3). LeakXpert assured the utility that using FST would arrest its water leakage problem; even though, there was very little space where to apply the FST between the incoming cables.
The Result
After completing the application of the FST, customer water tested the seal. The seal held out water in all of the cable entry points. The O&M Head approved the repair done with FST and invited Polywater’s representative to present the solution in their knowledge sharing session. Later LeakXpert was assigned a similar sealing job at other locations in the same building.
FST helped resolved a potential problem quickly and effectively before the new GIS installation experienced the heavy rains of the upcoming monsoon season.
