Power Station, Ravenswood QLD

The Gold Mine Required NPE to start and run a 12 MW ball mill, the diesel power station was required to go from no load to 18MW starting current and then back to 12MW continuous load as the mill gets to rated speed.

NPE designed a 26 MW power station complete with 12MW of resistive load that ramps up before a mill start and drops off the instant the mill starts resulting in shock loading of the power station being reduced from 18MW to around 6MW.

This removes mechanical stresses from the gensets and severely reduces volt drop and associated transients from the electrical system, allowing the mines other electrical equipment to stay online during a mill start. Secondly, on a mill shutdown the 12MW load banks come on the instant the mill is stopped then slowly ramp the load down, this reduces mechanical stress on the gensets and removes excessive electrical transients from the system. The idea for the solution stemmed from NPE’s pumping expertise and their knowledge of attributing a False Load to large pump sets when testing them to minic an exact operational scenario.

The same hydraulic principles used in pumping were applied to this electrical system. Our client can continue mining for the next 24 months until their mains power is installed, thanks to a world first in engineering and design by NPE.