Cover/Letter/TOC.qxd - Parsons Brinckerhoff

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Profiles in Power A diverse portfolio of projects for PB Power Asia-Pacific PB Power Asia-Pacific is a major force behind the firm’s ascending trajectory on the global power scene. Under Managing Director Stuart Wallace, the high-energy New Zealand- and Australian-based group is bringing the full gamut of power generation and transmission and distribution capabilities to projects large and small, traditional and renewable, throughout Australia, New Zealand and the entire Asia-Pacific region. Manapouri Hydropower Station Boosting Hydroelectric Capacity Imagine a scene so pristine that it has never been visited by a human being. Such is the case with some parts of New Zealand’s spectacular Fiordland National Park, a World Heritage Park in South Island, and the site of the Second Manapouri Tailrace Tunnel, on which PB Power played a supporting role for Meridian Energy Limited. The country’s largest energy efficiency project to date, this tailrace, or outfall, tunnel enables the Manapouri Hydropower Station to achieve its full potential—and provide electricity for an additional 64,000 homes—without using additional water from Lake Manapouri. PB Power provided civil, electrical and mechanical engineering design for ancillary works associated with the 10-meter (33-foot) tunnel, such as headworks, maintenance works, outlet works, dewatering facilities and all permanent electrical systems. PB Power also acted as a consultant during construction. Built in the 1960s, the Manapouri station generates power by diverting water from Lake Manapouri via intake pipes to seven underground turbine generators below lake level. However, the original tailrace tunnel allowed the station to generate only 590 MW of its 700-MW capacity. The new partially concrete-lined tunnel, built parallel to the original by one of the world’s largest tunnel boring machines, increases the power station’s capacity by 30 percent. The outfall was operational in May 2002. “The plant has already been run up to 710 MW, almost to its current theoretical peak output,” says PB Power Project Manager Bryan Scott. Notes • 7
© 2002 BRITISH PETROLEUM The Phu My 3 combined-cycle gas turbine plant is part of a multi-power station complex that will ultimately supply nearly 40 percent of Vietnam’s energy output. PLANT PHOTOS © 2002 DAVE BISPHAM The coal-fired Playford Power Station in South Australia is being refurbished. At the helm: John Doutty, NRG-Flinders Project Director, and Alex Low, PB Power Construction Manager. Phu My 3 On the BOT Team Faced with soaring electricity demand, Vietnam is adding urgently needed power plants. A key effort in this program is the Phu My complex, a set of power plants located 70 kilometers (43 miles) southeast of Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam. The complex is slated to generate 4,000 MW, or nearly 40 percent of the country’s output. PB Power is serving as owner’s engineer on the 716-MW Phu My 3 Plant, which is being delivered under Vietnam’s first build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract and is the country’s largest privately owned power project. “Everything is going like clockwork,” says Project Director Roger Hudson, who notes that PB Power’s global resources were key in winning the job. The client, the Phu My BOT Company, composed of British Petroleum, Sembcorp and Kyushu Electric, “appreciated the fact that PB Power could supply services wherever they were needed,” says Hudson. Design review for the main engineer-procure-construct (EPC) contract was completed in the EPC contractor’s office in Offenbach, Germany, supported principally from PB Power’s Manchester and Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K., offices, with design review for interface contracts undertaken from the Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand, offices. Factory inspection in Europe is being handled from PB’s Baden, Germany, office and in Asia from Auckland, New Zealand. PB Power engineers on site keep progress rolling as part of an integrated client/consultant project team to meet the plant’s mid-2003 completion date. Says Bill Smith, Phu My BOT Company Project Manager, “That's the reason we pushed for PB Power from the outset—depth and expertise covering the globe and a professional and efficient response with a successful outcome. What more can one ask?” © 2002 DAVE BISPHAM Wairakei and Ohaaki Upgrading Geothermal Station Controls PB Power is nearing the 50 percent completion mark on an 18-month controls retrofit project for two New Zealand geothermal stations. The Wairakei Power Station, built in the 1950s, and the Ohaaki Power Station, built in the 1980s, were equipped with the same microprocessor-based controls. When the original manufacturer discontinued its support for the controls equipment, PB Power stepped in. Led by Project Manager Dave Moore, the firm recommended a new generic platform for the replacement equipment, specified the actual equipment, and determined the control algorithms within the existing equipment in order to program the new controllers to do the same job as the old ones. According to Moore, the top challenge was to come to grips with the older programming technologies, with which no one in the company had direct experience. “This project will allow the power stations to keep up their generation capacity with little down time during the changeover,” says Moore. “It also keeps PB Power in the forefront of controls technology and adds to our credentials in power station controls.” Playford Power Station Powering a Plant Refurbishment With refurbishment an increasingly popular option for plants with aging but potentially efficient generation components, PB Power has a top team to respond to the market. One of its key assignments is owner’s engineer for refurbishment of the coal-fired Playford Power Station in Port Augusta, South Australia. The 30-month project, which began in March 2002, will restore the 40-year-old plant to its original 240-MW capacity and help it conform to new environmental standards. On the refurbishment list: reconditioning of six boilers; installation of new bag filters; and retrofit of low nitrogen oxide burners. And, in a move toward efficiency and convenience, a newly installed modern control system will feature remote single-button operation, enabling just two shift engineers to operate the entire facility. Having hit every milestone of this ambitious project since the outset, the program is on schedule for returning the last two of four refurbished turbines to service in mid-2004. “Refurbishment is an area where we’ve always excelled,” says Alastair Moffat, PB Power Project Director for Playford and Manager of Projects for PB Power Asia-Pacific, who notes that Playford is the firm’s first coal-fired plant project in the Asia-Pacific region in many years. “The owner receives a plant that operates as well as a new one with far less capital outlay.” Plant owner, NRG-Flinders, a South Australian electricity generator and energy trader, is satisfied. “The owner/owner’s engineer team is working well together to ensure we meet an on-time and on-budget completion,” says John Doutty, NRG-Flinders Project Director of the Playford Refurbishment Project. “In particular, PB Power has gone that extra mile when needed to help us during the current implementation phase. We look forward to the timely recommissioning of the refurbished plant.” © 2002 DAVE BISPHAM Toora Wind Farm Harnessing a Renewable Resource On Silcock’s Hill near the hamlet of Toora in the Australian state of Victoria, 12 turbines generate up to 21 MW of electricity. During its long development phase, PB Power provided engineering and advisory services for the Toora Wind Farm, which started operation in August 2002 and is the second largest wind farm in Australia. PB Power consulted on engineering issues such as wind monitoring program design and implementation, wind resource analysis, wind farm design, and detailed electrical interconnection studies. The firm also undertook machinery shipment inspections. According to Project Manager Achim Hoehne, a top challenge was determining the layout of the wind turbines to optimize energy generation within the site’s tight physical constraints while maintaining strict planning requirements. “Through PB Power-developed tools, we were able to quantify and minimize uncertainties associated with the wind flow over the site’s complex terrain,” says Hoehne. “As a result, the owner had higher confidence in the project’s economic viability.” ■ Toora Wind Farm, which opened in August 2002 in Victoria, Australia, is the country’s second largest wind farm. Steam wafts up from the geothermal Wairakei Power Station in New Zealand, where PB is managing the high-tech retrofit of controls. 8 • Notes Notes • 9
Page 1 and 2: February 2003 PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF
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