Power station management of operations and maintenance, applying predictive and risk management strategies.
Kinetic Australia (Kinetic) have been engaged to look after the Birla Nifty Copper Operation (BNCO) power station since May 2007 on behalf of Birla Nifty Pty Ltd (Birla). Their role during this time has been to operate and maintain Birla's power generation assets to a very high level of sustained reliability in order to assist in supporting the Companies' operations in the East Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The Birla Nifty power station is comprised of:
- One GE TM2500 aero derivative Gas Turbine
- Two Solar Centaur T4001 Gas Turbines
- Two Caterpillar 3608 REciprocating Diesel Generators
- Two Detroit Reciprocating Diesel Generators.
The power station also takes care of the HV distribution switchgear and other ancillary equipment.
Kinetic have consistently demonstrated excellent professionalism in their work at BNCO, and effectively managed all aspects of the operation and maintenance of the power station to an extremely high standard. They have achieved exceptional levels of reliability from all of the generators consistently maintaining an asset availability/serviceability of greater than 99.9%. This has been achieved by the application of an advanced predictive maintenance strategy and effective risk management techniques.
Kinetic are very forward thinking, proactive company with highly focused, professional work ethic. They are constantly striving for opportunities to make improvements in terms of reliability, performance and efficiency to a point where the need for reactive maintenance is virtually eliminated.
I would not have any hesitation in recommending Kinetic. They have proven to be very capable in implementing and maintaining highly effective predictive maintenance strategies and continue to develop new and innovative tools and methods to further enhance the services they provide.
Craig Dawson
Former General Manager – Birla Nifty Operations
Precision maintenance translating to decreased power outages and cost efficiencies
In my dealings with Kinetic Australia Pty Ltd, over the past few years, I was immensely impressed with the approach taken by the highly skilled technical staff in issues pertaining to power house maintenance.
The core team members of the company comprise of aerospace personnel that have a hands on education background and working experience on turbine maintenance and turbine control software. The personnel compliment's background indicates that each member of the team has had a thorough individual training in their relative fields of expertise and each member of the team performs preventative maintenance tasks that is uniquely defined.
This aerospace approach to preventative maintenance have paid off in the manifest that limited power outages for the past two years could wholly be ascribed to external factors such as birds causing short circuits between over head phase lines or occasional mining operations operating errors. Equipment maintenance issues are strictly limited to planned maintenance and coincide with the general mine's maintenance schedules. The mine's powerhouse downtime was never a result of inadequate power generating equipment maintenance issues.
The innovation of the company is further enhanced by the fact that quite a few of the mine site's generators are more than twenty years old, and in some case older than thirty years, and in some cases faulty parts that are unobtainable had to be remanufactured. In this remanufacturing process the correct materials have to be selected and the tooling techniques have to be exact. Kinetic Australia has excelled them in this area of expertise. Broken or badly worn parts that are unobtainable or very difficult to source in the market place have been successfully manufactured and installed.
The company's expertise includes the ability to perform generator automation projects with both reciprocating diesel engines and turbines.
Kinetic Australia Pty Ltd, is also a licensed gas maintenance concern and has done valuable work on the of gas related control equipment.
All Kinetic Australia personnel are in possession of the required legal accredited certification that is required to perform maintenance tasks.
Some of the predictive techniques that are utilised are:
- Spectrometric oil analysis for lubrication, hydraulic and transformer oils
- 3 axis vibration sampling and analysis
- Thermo graphic imaging on wiring and all power house electrical systems
- Bore scope examination of internal components
- The detection of turbine air leaks or unusual heat dispersal
- Data trend analysis. Both live trending and stored data sample trending is applied. Kinetic Australia Pty Ltd has developed proprietary database number crunching tools that quickly highlight emerging trends.
Kinetic Australia Pty Ltd, has demonstrated their ability to develop new equipment and techniques in order to enhance their maintenance competitiveness. As an example of this Kinetic Australia Pty Ltd, has manufactured a trailer mounted oil purification plant that removes moisture and contaminants back to levels equal to and often superior to brand new oil. This process is suitable for all lubrication, hydraulic and transformer oil and can be conducted whilst the machine is on line, negating the need for oil replacement and disposal. Regular treatment of lubrication systems in this way, keeping ISO cleanliness codes and moisture contents very low has been proven to increase the lives of pumps, valves, bearings and oil protected moving parts at least fivefold.
I can testify that Kinetic Australia Pty Ltd, can provide a highly refined power house maintenance programme at a very competitive price compared to other similar operations in the marketplace.