The primary role of the cranes is for use during shutdowns of the power station’s generators. Shutdowns take place once or twice a year depending on what maintenance and/ or repair work is required at the time, whether due to an unplanned outage or scheduled maintenance. According to Peter Tomazic, Rockwell Automation solutions consultant, “The primary role of the cranes is to lift equipment in and out as required during outages. When the power station is running normally these cranes generally sit idle.”
A Novel Approach Designing a cost-effective solution to customize a new electrical system to fit through the manholes of the exist- ing crane structures presented some unique challenges that would call on the domain expertise and risk management expertise of Rockwell Automation.
During the risk assessment it was found that the cranes’ access manholes were not large enough to allow installation of standard gear plates or new control cabinets. “We discovered post audit that we would be putting the new solution into a very crammed electric house [on each crane],” said Tomazic.
The crane drive systems are usually pre-installed in cabinets and the existing electrics had all been mounted into the frame of the crane and access into it now was much like a ship hole door. It appeared as if when the cranes were originally built there was a bigger opening and the manufacturer had then built the outer structure around it. “As a result of this, we had to cross off an earlier idea to design entirely new cabinets, which would have made the job much easier,” said Tomazic. “Instead we decided to manufacture the insides of the electric drive cabinet in a manner that could be brought into the existing crane electrics and fitted into the existing cabinets once they were gutted.”
Rockwell Automation provided a custom designed and manufactured solution consisting of GuardLogix and Pow- erFlex DC drives mounted on custom-built gear plates for installation in the original crane cabinets.
The Innovative Solution The challenges presented in this project required some- thing that was not simply an off-the-shelf solution. According
to Tomazic,“We are often awarded contracts that require our engineers to ‘scratch their heads’ a little bit to come up with the best solution. Our local engineering team manages many upgrade projects to help reduce the customer’s risk, supply- ing projects on time and within budget.
Once the obstacle of a ‘crammed’ electrics house was
overcome by Rockwell Automation, AGL Macquarie was able to realize the outcomes it wanted. The GuardLogix controllers allowed safety to be inte- grated into the system, delivering what was required by current Australian safety standards for these applications. The solution also incorporated an innovative data logging capability within the GuardLogix system using the Historian ME module.
“The cranes’ operating data was previously difficult to
record with the obsolete analog system, so to fix that we provided a solution that was capable of logging the operating data of the cranes, which the company required for tracking crane usage,” said Tomazic.
New Life
The key outcome from this project is that it has reinvigo- rated Bayswater Power Station’s two cranes to safely and reliably take the station through many more outages, if need be. Along with both cranes now adhering to current Austra- lian safety standards, the design offers a fault-tolerant system that does not compromise the safety of the crane in the event of a single failure. According to Satish Busuapala, acting team leader at Bayswater Power Station, “The
project...took about a year to complete and [we are] very pleased with the outcome.” “The cranes have been performing well since the upgrade by Rockwell Automation,” he continued.
Rockwell Automation attended to the whole life cycle of
the project from the safety risk assessment, to the design, manufacture and commissioning of the project. “We needed to have the cranes certified for them to be at
current standards and Rockwell Automation achieved that for the power station. AGL Macquarie would have no hesita- tion in working with Rockwell Automation again as further upgrades are required,” said Busuapala.
Edited by Yearbook Editor James D. Sawyer from information provided by Rockwell Automation.
55 — Energy Manufacturing 2016
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