As one of the powerhouses of Asia-Pacific economic growth, Thailand invests heavily in electricity generating capacity to service its burgeoning major industries, including automotive and electrical manufacturing and tourism.

The country, which has the second largest economy in South-East Asia after Indonesia, plans to increase total generating capacity from about 30,000 MW in 2009 to more than 50,000MW by 2021. * (Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, EGAT)

Of this total, well over a third will continue to be provided by Independent Power Producers (IPPs), private investment vehicles that work with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, EGAT, to provide the infrastructure capital needed to build new infrastructure and ensure that existing assets are operated at peak efficiency and optimum safety.

The global Konecranes group has become a long-term partner in this process with the Southern Thai  KEGCO subsidiary of The Electricity Generating Public Company, EGCO, which is the first  independent power producer in Thailand . This public company that owns and develops generation units which cover diversified fuels such as natural gas, coal, diesel oil, hydropower and biomass, in accordance with the government’s policy on fuel diversification to ensure energy sustainability.

One of EGCO’s earliest acquisitions, through KEGCO, is the 824 MW Khanom power plant, a major base load generator in the Nakhon Sri Thammarat province in Southern Thailand, where it operates a combined gas cycle turbine (674MW) and two barge-mounted thermal plants (150 MW).

As the first generating station in Asia to achieve IS09002 quality certification Ð and as a winner this year of its seventh consecutive EIA environmental monitoring awards Ð Khanom has set out to be a model of safety and efficiency. It has adopted ISO 14001 and TIS 18001 OHSAS 18001: 1999 in its operating standards. KEGCO has also been awarded National Safety Awards for eight consecutive years.

“We are now introducing Total Quality Management systems in a programme extending over the coming three years,” says Khanom Electricity Generating Company Electrical Maintenance Section Manager Suebsak Choorit.

“As part of our drive to achieve global standards of excellence in everything we do, we actively seek to focus people to improve everything we do. We want to have a continuous process of  reviewing how we did things before, and seeing what can be developed to improve the process,” said Mr Choorit,  who works with Konecranes Thailand Branch Supervisor Sommart Chockseareesuwan to ensure world-best practices are adopted for the company’s lifting equipment.

Konecranes has been involved for more than 10 years in achieving outstanding reliability levels from the 39 cranes at Khanom. This year Konecranes Thailand Branch, under the direction of Service Branch Manager Jirapong Kocharack, signed another three-year preventive maintenance contract for the vital equipment, ranging in size from overhead cranes up to 65 tons, down to rotary and jib cranes, HRSG cranes (heat recovery steam generator), gantry cranes, workshop cranes, electric overhead cranes and chain hoists and chain blocks.

When involved in an ongoing basis in assisting with safety training and preventive maintenance, Konecranes uses the customer knowledge and expertise of its Thai team to deliver locally the global resources of the Konecranes group. The group employs nearly 9,700 people at more than 485 locations in 43 countries and has more than 366,000 cranes of all brands under service contracts.

“This type of support is vital, because we depend on the cranes for everything from routine maintenance to the removal of the rotors and turbines of our four gas turbines and three steam turbines. We take out turbines every four years in a rolling programme, so it this process is going on much of the time and obviously we need complete safety and reliability to achieve maximum efficiency,” said Mr Suebsak.

“This is specialised work and you have to know your suppliers very well. I am very confident with Sommart that if I call him in an emergency he will be on-site very quickly and know immediately where to go to find and fix things.

“Even with routine work, a global company such as Konecranes can source parts and technology more quickly than the old ways. We have many brands of Japanese and European cranes on-site, in addition to our Konecranes equipment for heavy lifting. They know what parts we need to have on-site, what’s likely to be needed.

“If a crane ever did break down, they would fix it quickly, because they know where to look, where to get parts and how to get back into production quickly.

“If change your service people often, you have to start all over again with them, which is not the case with Konecranes.

“And the safety and efficiency benefits are not only in our routine contract Ð we can rely on Konecranes expertise nationally and internationally when they do load testing and safety testing of the cranes.”

All inspections are based on Konecranes ServMan crane inspection and service computer programme, with local rules integrated (for the Kor Por 1 Inspection). The inspection in performed by qualified and certified inspectors with an inspection report is given to the customer within a week of the inspection, including:

• The working condition of the cranes.
• The safety condition of the cranes.
• Any actions needed to improve the cranes’ safety.
• Any actions needed to improve operator and production hazards.
• Safety Certificate (Kor Por 1) signed by a 2nd Degree Thai Mechanical Engineer.

The inspections are performed four times a year, or once every three months, as required by the Interior Ministry of Thailand for overhead crane inspections involving the Safety Certificate (Kor Por 1).

Konecranes also upgrades existing equipment to new efficiency levels, including Khanom’s largest, 65-ton, double girder Konecrane, which is used in the turbine refurbishment programme. This was brought up to Konecranes CXT standard, with twin motors and twin motor brakes for enhanced safety and operating durability when dealing with very heavy equipment. CXT Features include

• High performance hoisting motors with 60 per cent ED rating, which combine extra power with superior cooling characteristics. The hoisting motors also have the power and flexibility for temporary peak usage situations. Motors feature overload liming devices, disk brakes, and thermal protection.

Inverter control as standard in crane and trolley travels, for easy and effective load control. Smooth starts and stops reduce wear and mechanical stress on structures and minimises the load sway. Improved productivity is achieved because moving and positioning the load is faster, easier and safer.

• Fast and accurate load positioning with True Lift as standard, which means the hook moves horizontally only 5mm during a one-metre lift.
• Ergonomic hook design, which makes rigging of the load safer, while the rope drum to rope diameter ratio is more than double conventional designs. The innovative design of CXT hoists, with a large rope drum diameter, reduces the stress and wear of the lifting rope.
• Special features for Khanom including two-step limit switch on the trolley travel (Slow-Stop) and two motors drive with separated gearbox and overspeed mechanical brake.

Mr Subesak says KEGCO values safety, reliability and efficiency in all lifting operations “So we rely on Konecranes global knowledge, coupled with local expertise, to provide top standards of preventive maintenance. And it is good that Konecranes can help us with safety inspections, because this is an important and time-consuming  job.”

“We get good support all year, with teams of three Konecranes people out for routine inspections and four involved in the annual inspections. They all  fit in with our own people very well Ð we know them very well and we’re happy with that and with the crane availability and reliability rates we have achieved working together.”

Konecranes is a world-leading provider of lifting and maintenance solutions, with a track record in pioneering, leading and shaping developments in the industry.   Annual sales in 2008 exceeded 2.1billion Euros.

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