Electricity and Control May 2022

PLANT MAINTENANCE, TEST + MEASUREMENT

Steinmüller Africa secures four-year Eskom contract Steinmüller Africa, a specialist in the design and maintenance of power plants, has been awarded a four-year contract with Eskom, effective 1 January 2022, to provide maintenance and repair services for the Arnot, Camden, Duvha, Kriel, Majuba, Hendrina, Kendal, and Kusile Power Stations. This contract will retain 600 jobs and create about 2 400 new jobs. Steinmüller Africa was the successful bidder, competing against several local and international companies. “We are immensely pleased to have secured this business with our largest customer. We have proven our expertise by fulfilling Eskom’s stringent requirements,” said Moso Bolofo, Director of the company. Thirty percent of the contract value will support local busi nesses through subcontractors. Steinmüller Africa aims to em power EMEs (exempted micro enterprises in terms of the dtic’s Codes of Good Practice for Black Economic Empowerment), QSEs (qualifying small enterprises), as well as businesses owned by youth and disabled people, by supporting their ser vices – in accommodation, transport, and other fields. The bulk of Steinmüller Africa’s services will be carried out at the eight power station sites, with fabrication of some compo or steam flowing inside these pipes. “This helps us predict the effects of the working fluids, the air, the flue gas, and the water steam, as well as how they flow through obstructions, lose or gain pressure, change phase, or even pulsate,” Ham explains. CFD software for numerical analysis is used to calculate the intricate mass, energy, and fluid dynamic balance on a high ly detailed scale including every point within the fluid volume. “These tools enable us to get around the practical difficulties of measuring critical parameters within the combustion zone at temperatures of about 1 600°C, or within the steam system at temperatures up to 572°C and pressures of 258 bar,” Ham says. Analysis for heat exchangers “Although our numerical analysis offering is related mainly to boiler systems and associated auxiliary equipment, we can use these tools to analyse almost any heat exchanger or fluid dynamic equipment like fans, pumps, valves and dampers, for example.” Ham says Steinmüller has performed mass and energy balance thermal modelling for diverse types of heat exchangers. These include fired and unfired boilers, water-to-steam heat exchangers, fluidised bed boilers, waste heat boilers, fans, air heaters, mills and electrostatic precipitators or fabric filters. “We have also engineered fluid dynamic models of the boiler water circulation system contained in evaporators, as well as large and complex piping systems, valves, and fans,” he says. In addition, Steinmüller recently conducted a CFD analysis of various power system subcomponents – combining these com ponent models to form an entire boiler system, which included mills, burners, air heaters and electrostatic precipitators, which remove ash and dust from the flue gas. More than six decades of refining its numerical analysis offer ing for boilers and ancillary equipment will serve the company

A CFD model of a boiler system including coal mills and pulverised fuel piping (foreground), burners and air ducting, furnace showing combustion flow paths and temperatures and downstream air heat exchangers (background). – and its clients – well as it expands its industrial footprint. “Our numerical modelling helps develop performance improvements in the systems’ various sub-components, which are combined into a single system model that assesses the overall benefits to the entire system,” Ham says. “Our service has the potential to drive down operating and maintenance costs in any industry.” □

For more information visit: www.steinmuller.bilfinger.com

nents to be done at its 30 000 m 2 facility based in Pretoria. The company offers comprehensive expertise for boiler pressure parts, high temperature and pressure steam pipes, as well as in heat exchangers. Services include automated welding, pipe bending, pipe and tube manipulation, plant lifetime extension plans, and project management services. Steinmüller Africa has been a service provider to Eskom for the maintenance and servicing of its power plants for almost 60 years. □ Steinmüller Africa Executive Directors (from left): Moso Bolofo, Bodo Haar and Mohamed Khan.

MAY 2022 Electricity + Control

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