We managed to get this one finished 8 weeks ahead of schedule, in time to supply power to the grid for the national peak. The core of the plant is a 4.4MW gas turbine which supplies power to the brewery and exports to the grid, coupled to an exhaust heat boiler making 21 tonnes of steam per hour. The plant has been operational since December 2002 and has achieved very high levels of reliability and availability.
The generator has the ability to seamlessly transition into island operation during a grid outage, supplying the brewery even when there is a blackout in the surrounding area, and when the mains supply returns, the generator reconnects to resume is normal export of power to the grid. The plant is design with a high degree of automation, minimizing the requirement for operator involvement.
The project has been an environmental as well as technical success, and has reduced the brewery’s CO2 emissions by 15,000 tonnes per year. Low NOx technology also resulted in emissions of only 7ppm, considerably lower than current EPA requirements, and equating to an overall site NOx reduction of 100 tonnes per year. The installation of a high-pressure gas line, sophisticated modulating bypass systems and duct burning also resulted in reduced plant energy consumption by 1.2 million kWh per year. The equipment is housed in an acoustically designed enclosure, so operation is very quiet results in no additional noise at the site boundaries.