Cummins Asia Pacific Magazine - Issue 1 2023

Continued from previous page...
generation system which incorporated gas
turbines and wind turbines.
Grant Farquhar still sees the important role
gas generators play in large-scale power
systems. “Thermal capacity is critical in
supplementing the renewable component,”
he says. “In Esperance, power demand
is quite volatile, necessitating the thermal
capacity for reliable and economical
baseload power supply.
“Batteries aren’t at the level yet where
they could be considered a substitute for a
power station’s thermal capacity.”
The three 850 kW Cummins diesel gensets
at Esperance are ‘black start’ units as
well as support for the gas gensets during
periods of high demand.
Cummins’ proactive support
“Cummins is proactive with its aftersales
technical support,” says Marc Grosser,
general manager of design and
engineering for Pacific Energy’s remote
power business. “It’s what we expect from
Cummins. If you line up all the OEMs,
Cummins has got it right in terms of
customer focus.”
Power station with eight HSK78G gas
gensets at Karlawinda gold project in
the Pilbara (and below).
He points out the HSK78G generator set
is “meeting expectations” and that Pacific
Energy has worked closely with Cummins
to further improve and optimise the genset
to meet site requirements.
“Fuel efficiency along with load step and
load rejection capabilities are strong points
of the HSK78G,” he says.
Another new power station added recently
to Pacific Energy’s asset portfolio and
using HSK78G generators is at Capricorn
Metals’ Karlawinda gold project in the
Pilbara region.
Pacific Energy was awarded the build, own
and operate contract to supply power to
the project, which covers an area 110 km
wide and 30 km long. The first gold was
poured in mid-2021 and annual production
rate is between 110,000 and 125,000
ounces of gold.
Featuring eight HSK78G gas gensets, the
16 MW power station is not yet hybrid but
it’s expected that renewable energy will be
added sometime in the future.
Fuel efficiency along with load step
and load rejection capabilities are
strong points of the HSK78G.
12 | CUMMINS ASIA PACIFIC MAGAZINE | ISSUE 1 2023