Close to 400 engineers, laborers and craft workers finished work safely every day during the construction and commissioning of an innovative power plant upgrade in South Sumatra, Indonesia. The project upgraded an existing gas-fired, two-unit simple cycle plant.
This simple cycle plant was upgraded to combined cycle in order to utilize waste heat that generates additional megawatts for no additional fuel cost. Combined cycle plants produce both lower air emissions and are also highly efficient power facilities. They ‘combine’ both natural gas and steam turbine cycles to produce electricity.
The upgrade was complete on time and on budget, delivering 128 megawatts (MW) of electric power.
When finished, tests proved the plant was more efficient than originally conceived. Quality equipment and designed systems resulted in the steam turbine generator producing 41.8 MW, 1.8 MW beyond the guaranteed performance rate.
The best-in-class facility was delivered in the midst of some challenging circumstances. Road access to the site did not suit the delivery of some key components. River level variances had to be calculated so that the transportation of the generator, for example, could be timed around the river’s peak level during the wet season.
In spite of challenging conditions, the focus on quality and safety, in particular, remained throughout. More than 1 million work hours were completed at Indralaya without a Loss Time Incident (LTI). Safety was the number one priority at all times. The team worked hard to ensure all workers were properly informed about well-organized and proactive approaches to injury prevention. Black & Veatch professionals proactively interfaced with the workforce during construction.
The project was led by Sumitomo Corporation. Black & Veatch provided the power island EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) solution, excluding some civil works. Black & Veatch’s work involved the addition of heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs), a steam turbine generator and other balance of plant equipment for the conversion of two gas turbines to combined cycle operation.
Major orders for the steam turbine generator and the heat recovery steam generators were placed in December 2005 under a Limited Notice-to-Proceed, with Full Notice-to-Proceed issued in May 2006. Construction mobilization occurred during March 2007, with commercial operation beginning on July 24, 2008.
The plant is owned in part by PT PLN, the Indonesia state electricity company, and its subsidiary Indonesia Power.
