Mechanical Technology January 2016

⎪ Hydraulic and pneumatic systems ⎪

Majuba compressors and service agreements

Ingersoll Rand compressors have now been used at Eskom’s Majuba power plant for over seven years. The company’s dedicated Eskom service sales engineer and key accounts manager, Neo Kuhn, talks about the service agreements and contractual obligations that have made this possible.

T hrough its largest contract to date in terms of the number of compressors supplied and serviced – and the years under service – Ingersoll Rand is playing a pivotal role in ensuring that Eskom’s Ma- juba plant in Mpumalanga has sufficient compressed air for continuous operation. Majuba is the power utility’s second largest plant with an installed capacity of 4 110 MW. The plant is supported by 21 Ingersoll Rand Centac ® centrifugal compressors installed onsite. These compressors, which vary from 16 m³/min capacity to 125 m³/min, are used to service Majuba’s compressed air requirements, primarily process and dust conveying air. To ensure optimum running of the centrifugal compressors, Ingersoll Rand has employed a dedicated Eskom service sales engineer (SSE). Now a dedicated team of six Ingersol Rand staff members – a senior technician, who also performs the role of onsite supervisor; an instrumentation technician; a dryer technician; and three assistants – are seconded to the utility’s site on a full time basis. The team is responsible for all maintenance, service and repairs and performs all operations pertaining thereto. In addition to the Ingersoll Rand

Centac compressors, the company inher- ited an additional 84 non-Ingersoll Rand products onsite, including 63 dryers, and also takes responsibility for the continu- ous optimum operation of these products. To facilitate smooth running of the service agreement, the contractual ob- ligations are split into two measurable service agreements – a maintenance contract and a spare parts contract, which run in conjunction with one an- other for five-year periods. The current service agreement is the second five- year contract and it is currently into its second year. The original product commissioning took place as far back as September 1995, while the two service agree- ments came into place only seven years ago when Eskom realised the need for dedicated onsite professionals to ensure uptime continuity. “Although the average compressor lifetime is approximately five years,” says Neo Kuhn, service sales engineer and key accounts manager, Ingersoll Rand, “with correct upkeep and proper service intervals, it is possible to increase compressor longevity.” Ingersoll Rand removes and overhauls each compressor every three years for smaller compressors and every five years

Ingersol Rand’s CV0, 16 m³/min compressor (the smallest), used extensively at the Majuba power station.

for the larger. “Although, due to the way we maintain our compressors, we have a number of smaller units that achieve five years or more before an overhaul, and larger units that have now reached the seven-year milestone,” Kuhn points out. He believes that these particular Centac compressors provide Eskom with several advantages that others don’t, such as the ability to provide constant flow, quick demand compression and the high energy efficiency for the required volumes of compressed air produced. “Ingersoll Rand South Africa is cer- tainly putting its money where its mouth is and living up to one of the statements made by its American parent company: ‘We stand behind our air compressors and beside our customers during plan- ning, installation and maintenance’,” Kuhn concludes. q

The C 125MX3, 125 m³/min centrifugal compressors (the largest) are regularly maintained and serviced, along with 19 other Ingersoll Rand Centac ® centrifugal compressors and 84 non-Ingersoll Rand products. Ingersoll Rand’s six-man team is onsite 24/7.

Mechanical Technology — January 2016

27