Performance. Know-how. Reliability.

CASE STUDY | Longwall Electrics: lessons

learned from the commissioning of a

$20million longwall electrical system

Carl Arboit

Chief Technology Officer

Becker Mining Australia

2

Agenda

Mine Electrical Project outlook

Innovative features and technology applications

Increasing coal output and reducing maintenance time

Challenges

The Change Management process required for Becker Equipment

3

Longwall Overview

2200 Tonne/hr, 120Hrs/wk

>10M Tonne/yr

>98.9% Performance Guarantee

Installed kW’s- 9300kW

AFC Motors- 3x 1200kW

300m – 400m Face

4

Becker Supply

7.5MVA Water Cooled Substations [x2]

10 Outlet Distribution and Control Boxes (DCB) [x2]

Control and Monitoring Enclosures (CME) at BSL, MG and TG [x2]

Signalline, Voicecom and Automation System

PRS Power Supply units- Exe Enclosures [x187]

LED Lighting [x350]

Associated cabling – Power and Control

Compatibility, Minibuild and Commissioning Activities

5

Becker Design Phase

Review of conventional control and switchgear against Becker

traditional products

Innovative Features

Compact and modular design

Longwall layout

Plug and Play

6

Innovative Features- decreasing maintenance

time and increasing coal output

Boltless door technology

Integrated Circuit Breaker and Protection

into a removal module- plug and play

HV Earthing (3.3kV)- integrated earth

facility without unplugging equipment-

Time, Safety, Cost savings

Statutory Tests- Group Earth Leakage

Test. No individual testing. Functional

safety backed

7

Compact and modular design

Substation and DCB common

design- commonality of parts

Equipment inherently narrow-

monorail mounted capability

Longwall Substation water cooled

(AFWF)- Similar footprint to a

4.5MVA ANAN

8

Compact and modular design (cont)

Services cut-through ambient operating temperature lower

Equipment life extended and reliability improved

9

Longwall layout

Conventional Layout- substation 800m from face

Voltage drop

Large expensive cables

Australian accepted design

Inbye Substation- Monorail / BSL mounted

Less cable complexity

Voltage improvement- increase Torque

Split power system- 2 substations

Proven design layout- installed at 100 mines

10

Plug and Play

Control and Switchgear interconnected by standard plug and

socket technology

Seamless integration of control, switchgear and safety systems

Minimisation of overall products

Reduction of Longwall move time

Simple connectorised system reduces complexity and removes

the need for a highly skilled workforce.

Interlinks with Maintenance and Fault finding capabilities

11

Challenges

Workforce Familiarity

Becker Personnel upskilling

Remote Location

Quality Control

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41

Tonnes

Actual Forecast variance Average

12

Workforce Familiarity

Becker equipment not the norm

Initial intrigue, followed by negativity for the

difference in look and feel

Training and extra service support key to

changing the mindset

Provide intuitive operating screens

Equipment robustness and reliability

provides confidence

Followed by coal output

13

Becker Personnel Upskilling

First of its kind for Australia

Intercompany upskilling- Knowledge share with oversea sister

companies

Direct links with OEM for key issues during tendering, design and

commissioning activities

14

Remote Location

Difficult to man with all skill sets for extended durations

Software Engineers- Remote access

Transport Damage

Service and Support- Onsite and Offsite

SCADA and OEM Software Interfaces

15

Quality Control

Substation Hot Joint during Minibuild activities

Loose bolt on cable attachment- Bolt tension marks intact

Actions as a result of the failure- Minibuild / Commissioning

additional actions

Bolt tension checks

Cable security checks

Workshop Quality control review

Customer Confidence- Arc fault contained

16

Quality Control

Substation Hot Joint- Additional Photos

Substation now in production

know-how | performance | reliability

Thank you very much

for your attention