By Tom Westcott.
London, 7 December:
One of Libya’s largest power stations, the Western Mountain Gas Power Plant near Al Hawamind, Nalut, has . . .[restrict]chosen Konecranes UK to supply a new €450,000 heavy-duty crane.
Ordered by ALGEC GT-Services, the Libyan-Swiss Joint Venture Company between GECOL and ALSTOM, which operates the Western Mountain Power Plant, the crane is due to be delivered in April 2013.
James Bow, marketing manager for Konecranes, told Libya Herald that the order is for a turbine hall, double girder crane. “The crane we are supplying to this power station would typically be used to lift the turbines and other equipment during the build of the station and when essential maintenance outages are required,” Bow said.
Employing new ‘Smarton’ technology, the crane has an intelligent user-friendly Human Interface to Machine (HIM) system which keeps the operator up-to-date in realtime with key data, including the weight of the load and its position relative to the available workspace.
New technologies also mean the crane is self-monitoring, giving an alert when inspection or maintenance is required. The hoists feature Konecranes’ ‘ControlPro’ monitoring technology which provides overload detection and brake wear monitoring.
These new technologies will allow ALGEC to minimise maintenance shutdowns and thus save on costs.
“These cranes will generally experience long periods of little use,” Bow said, “but when there is a maintenance outage, the station owner will use the cranes a lot and it’s crucial they are reliable as downtime during an outage is very expensive.”
Western Mountain Power Plant is an open cycle gas turbine plant fuelled by natural gas. Built in 2005, the 600 MW plant has four turbines. Before the revolution Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, an Indian power plant equipment manufacturer, was working on a project to expand the plant with an additional 300 MW turbine. [/restrict]
