In a deal worth in excess of R35m, Eskom's Hendrina Power Station has awarded the control and instrumentation (C&I) refurbishment contract for Units 1 to 5 to Siemens. Additionally, the company also secured the cabling contract, valued at R20m. The refurbishment contract to replace the control system - now obsolete since its installation in 1976 - will start during 2001 and end during 2004, with the final dates to be confirmed.
Quartus Dorfling, Key Account Manager at Siemens' Energy and Transportation Division, said the contract was awarded to Siemens due to the quality of the equipment supplied as well as the fact that the company had already refurbished Units 6 to 10 at Hendrina for the three years from 1996 until 1998 with the Teleperm XP process control system. "Although the current C&I contract awarded is similar to the previous one, it will not include the complete refurbishment of all instrumentation for units 6 to 10, but will use the Teleperm XP control system, thus achieving standardisation by making all ten 200 MW units similar," said Dorfling.
"The refurbishment will be performed during Eskom's Hendrina power station outage plan, which is one unit per year, in order to maximise Hendrina's availability and production."
According to Dorfling, I&C is judged by its effect on plant economics, as utilities worldwide strive for greater reliability and extended power plant service life as well as economically maximising fuel efficiency and environmental protection. "Drawing on our extensive expertise gained in more than 1000 power plants worldwide to develop sophisticated I&C solutions, the new Teleperm XP process control system provides the basis for economical and future-proof power plant automation," he claimed. "The architecture of the Teleperm XP process control system has been consistently tailored to meet the process engineering needs of modern power plants." Dorfling added that organising the automation systems to match the process organisation clearly reflects the power plant engineering functions and the interaction of the individual components, devices and systems is optimally supported by the hierarchical organisation of the I&C into various automation levels.
"The field level is fully integrated into the I&C systems through the use of intelligent field devices and the Teleperm XP structure, combined with the latest hardware and software standards, makes it possible to follow the short innovation cycles in microelectronics," he continued. "In addition, Teleperm XP is open to the coupling of automation systems supplied by other vendors and to system extensions with additional components or devices, creating a safe investment in the future for the entire life of the power plants." In terms of operating convenience, the Teleperm XP is second to none, claims Dorfling. As the system is hierarchically organised, all information passed on to the next higher automation level is compressed.
The result of this is that the process on the operation and monitoring level is clearly structured and therefore easy to grasp, which reduces the workload on the control room staff and leaves them sufficient time to concentrate on their main tasks. "Consistent orientation of the Teleperm XP hardware and software toward the process engineering tasks to be carried out in the power plant results in substantial economic benefits, including maximum efficiencies, a maximum degree of availability and optimal fuel utilisation, optimal manoeuvrability, long lifetime as well as low operating costs," he concluded.
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