Loy Yang Power Conveyor System Upgrade
Loy Yang, VIC
In Australia, coal-fired power generation has established itself as a valuable power source, providing vast quantities of inexpensive and reliable electricity. One energy industry stakeholder leading the way is Victoria’s largest energy producer, Loy Yang Power.
As part of the company’s ongoing commitment to producing reliable cost-efficient energy, Loy Yang Power recently embarked on an upgrade of its four-level open-cut coal mine facility, Loy Yang Mine. The ‘in progress’ upgrade includes the redesign and progressive changeover of the mine’s existing coal transfer conveyor drive systems. To obtain a drive solution capable of withstanding the rugged mine environment while delivering premium around-the-clock performance, Loy Yang Power enlisted the engineering experience of Rockwell Automation.
Providing a steady flow of coal feedstock to the coal bunker is essential to keeping the power generation process online and producing cost-effective electricity. The legacy transfer conveyor drive systems at Loy Yang Mine were based on water-cooled eddy-current coupling (ECC) technology, which was struggling to move the coal as efficiently as they believed was now possible.
In a collaborative effort, Rockwell Automation and the Loy Yang Power engineering team developed a new drive solution, founded on the Allen-Bradley PowerFlex 7000 medium voltage (MV) AC drive. Featuring ‘Direct-to-Drive’ technology – helping eliminate the need for isolation transformers on applications with new or old motors – the new Allen-Bradley drive provides space-efficient speed and torque control across a range of drive applications.