As August drew to a close, so did CAP’s summer outage. What exactly is an outage? Simply put, an outage is when equipment is taken out of service so CAP craftsmen can do preventive maintenance, inspections, testing and repairs.

CAP’s summer outage always focuses on the western end of the system. This year it ran for 10 weeks and during that time, nine crews logged more than 12,000 hours of work. Outages are complicated, requiring months of planning and coordination to ensure the work is completed successfully and on time — ensuring reliable water deliveries.

Here are some highlights from this summer’s outage:

• At Mark Wilmer Pumping Plant, multiple projects focused on Unit 3, including rotor pole replacement, pump cavitation repairs, service seal repair and a six-year preventive maintenance.
• Bouse Hills Pumping Plant Unit 8 underwent some five-year preventive maintenance work and a breaker cubicle auxiliary contact re-wiring project.
• At Little Harq Pumping Plant, a 10-year electromagnetic inspection of the right discharge pipeline was conducted as well as PMs on Units 4 and 5 and the Unit 5 discharge line.
• At Hassayampa Pumping Plant, five-year and annual PMs were conducted on various units and the transducer and power supply was upgraded and preventive maintenance occurred on multiple units.

The fall outage begins in October and will focus on the southern end of the CAP system.