POWER FOR MINES
components. To avoid fouling of the equipment due to the high humidity, ACTOM had to practice extreme caution when handling and preserving components during installation.
The remoteness of the site required ACTOM to carefully plan and supply certain essential equipment, such as highly specialised laser levelling and alignment equipment.
According to Site Manager Squire, projects like these require technical crews with in depth knowledge of rotating equipment, and the ability to perform with high-precision in remote sites.“ All challenges were overcome by ensuring that we had the necessary resources available on site and on time, as well as readily having the appropriate people with the correct skill sets.”
Clarke Energy, a GE distributor and service partner, will provide 11 of GE’ s high-efficiency Jenbacher J624 gas engines to Australia’ s leading energy infrastructure business, APA Group, for its new 45-MW Yamarna power station in Western Australia, which is being constructed to supply power to the Gruyere gold project. Clarke Energy will be the EPC contractor for the gas-fired power station. Gas for power generation will be transported a total of almost 1,500 km using four APA Group interconnected pipelines including its latest greenfield, 198-km Yamarna Gas Pipeline, currently also under construction.
“ As an infrastructure owner, our priority is to provide safe, reliable and efficient energy to our customers,” said Sam Pearce, Group Executive
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Networks and Power, APA Group.“ Together with Clarke Energy as the EPC and GE’ s demonstrated Jenbacher gas engine technology providing the power, we will be able to, once again, deliver a compelling energy solution for our customer using both our interconnected pipeline and power generation capabilities to the remote gold mine.”
Gruyere is a 50 / 50 joint venture between ASXlisted Gold Road Resources and global miner Gold Fields Ltd. It is located in the Yamarna greenstone belt of Western Australia, 200 km northeast of Laverton and to the north of APA Group’ s Eastern Goldfields Pipeline.
GE’ s Jenbacher J624 is the world’ s first twostage, turbocharged gas engine. GE says it“ provides the highest levels of engineering excellence and significant advantages, particularly in the areas of operation in hot environments— such as the Gruyere project location— and in multiple engine power plants for independent power production and combined heat and power applications. It offers customers high efficiency and improved flexibility and can power up to 10,000 Australian households.”
“ GE’ s high-efficiency, high-performance and dependable gas engine technology is an excellent fit for APA Group’ s needs of safety, reliability and efficiency and is well-proven with an installed gas engine fleet of over 700 MW in Australia,” said Greg Columbus, Managing Director, Clarke Energy.“ We look forward to providing safe, on-time and on-cost project delivery for APA Group and supporting its needs at the Gruyere project well into the future.”
GE’ s Jenbacher J624 gas engines will be built in the company’ s Jenbach, Austria, facility and were expected to ship during late 2017. Commissioning of both the pipeline and power station is expected to be in late 2018 to align with the Gruyere JV’ s expectation of first gold scheduled for early 2019.
“ GE’ s Jenbacher J624, high-speed gas engines provide numerous benefits for customers. In addition to high power density in hot ambient temperatures and best-in-class electrical efficiency of more than 45 %, they also include the capability to operate successfully with large transient electrical loads associated with mining processing plants. We are again proud to be supplying our channel partner, Clarke Energy, for this project,” said Daniel Angelo Icasiano, Sales Director Asia-Pacific, GE’ s Distributed Power.“ GE’ s gas engine technology provides a proven, cost-effective solution for powering the Gruyere mine site power station.”
GE / APR commitment
APR Energy, a global leader in fast-track power solutions, and GE renewed their strategic alliance to provide mobile turbine technology into the fast-track power rental market in January 2017.
The strategic alliance grants APR Energy exclusivity around the globe as the rental provider of GE mobile gas turbines under 50 MW. As part of the agreement, APR Energy will acquire new Generation 8, GE TM2500 + mobile turbines in connection with its initiative to upgrade and standardise its fleet. In addition, GE and APR
The Jenbacher J624 gas engine is based on GE’ s proven Jenbacher Type 6 platform with over 4,300 units sold and delivers higher output and increased efficiency
Energy will collaborate on leads for customers looking for interim or rental power solutions as a bridge to more permanent power solutions.
The acquisition of the new mobile turbines further strengthens APR Energy’ s position as what it says is“ the world’ s leading provider of mobile gas turbine power”, expanding its total fleet capacity to more than 2 GW.
Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE, said,“ We are very pleased to continue our partnership with APR Energy. We have been impressed with their high level of customer service and ability to deliver turnkey power generation projects in remote locations all around the world. With this strategic alliance, customers will benefit from APR Energy’ s expertise, and can use GE technology as a bridging solution while their permanent GE power plants are under construction.”
Inside view of an APR Energy mobile gas power module
30 International Mining | JANUARY 2018