Power For Mining

GE announced that Clarke Energy, GE’s distributor and service partner, will provide 11 Jenbacher J624 gas engines to Australia’s APA Group for its new 45 MW Yamarna Power Station in Western Australia, which is being constructed to supply power to the Gruyere Gold Project.

Clarke Energy will engineer, procure and construct (EPC) the gas-fired power station. Gas for power generation will be transported a total of almost 1500 km using four APA Group interconnected pipelines including its latest greenfield, 198-km Yamarna Gas Pipeline, currently also under construction.

“As an infrastructure owner, our priority is to provide safe, reliable and efficient energy to our customers,” said Sam Pearce, Group Executive Networks and Power, APA Group. “Together with Clarke Energy as the EPC and GE’s demonstrated Jenbacher gas engine technology providing the power, we will be able to, once again, deliver a compelling energy solution for our customer using both our interconnected pipeline and power generation capabilities to the remote gold mine.”

The Gruyere Gold Project is a 50/50 joint venture between the ASX-listed Gold Road Resources Ltd and the global miner Gold Fields Ltd. (“Gruyere JV”). It is located in the Yamarna greenstone belt of Western Australia, 200 km northeast of Laverton and to the north of APA Group’s Eastern Goldfields Pipeline.

GE said its Jenbacher J624 is the world’s first two-stage, turbocharged gas engine. It provides significant advantages, particularly in the areas of operation in hot environments—such as the Gruyere Gold Project location—and in multiple engine power plants for independent power production and combined heat and power applications. It offers customers high efficiency and improved flexibility and can power up to 10 000 Australian households. The Jenbacher J624 gas engine is based on GE’s proven Jenbacher Type 6 platform with over 4300 units sold and delivers higher output and increased efficiency.

“GE’s high-efficiency, high-performance and dependable gas engine technology is an excellent fit for APA Group’s needs of safety, reliability and efficiency and is well-proven with an installed gas engine fleet of over 700 MW in Australia,” said Greg Columbus, managing director, Clarke Energy. “We look forward to providing safe, on-time and on-cost project delivery for APA Group and supporting its needs at the Gruyere Gold Project well into the future.”

GE’s Jenbacher J624 gas engines will be built in the company’s Jenbach, Austria, facility and are expected to ship during late 2017. Commissioning of both the pipeline and power station is expected to be in late 2018 to align with the Gruyere JV’s expectation of first gold scheduled for early 2019.

“GE’s Jenbacher J624, high-speed gas engines provide numerous benefits for customers. In addition to high power density in hot ambient temperatures and best-in-class electrical efficiency of more than 45 percent, they also include the capability to operate successfully with large transient electrical loads associated with mining processing plants. We are again proud to be supplying our channel partner, Clarke Energy, for this project,” said Daniel Angelo Icasiano, sales director Asia-Pacific, GE’s Distributed Power. “GE’s gas engine technology provides a proven, cost-effective solution for powering the Gruyere mine site power station.”

APA Group is Australia’s largest natural gas infrastructure business, owning and/or operating around US$20 billion of energy infrastructure assets. Its gas transmission pipelines span every state and territory on mainland Australia, delivering approximately half of the nation’s gas usage. APA Group has direct management and operational control over its assets and the majority of its investments. APA Group also holds ownership interests in a number of energy infrastructure enterprises including SEA Gas Pipeline, SEA Gas (Mortlake) Partnership, Energy Infrastructure Investments and GDI Allgas Gas Networks.

Clarke Energy—a Kohler company—is a leader in the engineering design, installation and long-term maintenance of gas engine-based power plants. The company is an authorized distributor and service provider for GE’s Jenbacher gas engines in 25 countries. Clarke Energy employs over 1 100 staff and has over 5 800 MW of Jenbacher generation equipment installed in its operational areas.