By
MARK B FLYNN
Managing
Director
Infratech
Management Consultants
Development
Consultants - Managers - Engineers
The Upper Baiune Hydro Power Project - opened on
March 2, 2013 - is located near the town of Bulolo on the Baiune River in
Morobe province, PNG.
The project is about 110 km from Lae, the provincial
capital of Morobe.
 |
| Penstock that delivers water to the Upper Baiune hydro power station.-Picture by MALUM NALU |
A gravel link road of about 6 km connects the
project area with the Lae - Bulolo Wau highway at about 16 km away from Bulolo.
The project is a run-of-the-river scheme.
The installed capacity of the project is 9.4 MW (2
units of 4.7 MW).
 |
| Intake dam. |
Infratech Management Consultants Ltd (IMC), a PNG-registered
and based professional consulting services firm with offices in Port Moresby
and Lae, is proud to have provided the public private partnership consortium developer
- consisting of PNG Forest Products, PNG Power Ltd, and Katumani Landowner
Group - with professional project
management, engineering, and environmental services throughout the tender,
construction, and commissioning phases of the project delivered on time and
under budget.
The project was financed by Westpac Bank, which
required IMC to ensure that the banks “Equator Principles” requirements for
funding were implemented and complied with throughout the project construction
phase.
IMC prepared monthly and annual environmental
compliance reports and presented these reports to the Department of Environment
and Conservation, and to Westpac Bank.
IMC provided a team of experts to the project including
project manager, resident engineer/chief hydro engineer, two senior hydro engineers,
design/ civil engineer, electrical engineer, hydraulic engineer, geotechnical
engineer, mechanical engineer, and two environmental consultants.
The project
is the first fully-automatic hydro power project built in PNG.
The Upper Baiune Hydro Power Project is also the
first hydro power station in PNG fitted out with electrical-mechanical
components supplied entirely from China.
All major equipment supplied to the power house were
designed, manufactured, and installed to US ATSM standards negotiated by IMC
during the tendering phase.
This arrangement led to a seamless engagement with
the Chinese suppliers located across China from Chongqing to Hangzhou.
Major equipment supplied by APP of China included control
and protection equipment, 6.6kV high
voltage switchgears, main power and auxiliary transformers, main turbine inlet valves, turbine runners, turbine governor and
controls, excitation system, generator, turbine needle valves and Inlet
pipeworks, and powerhouse crane.
IMC personnel
oversaw the design of the electro-mechanical equipment and witnessed the
factory bench testing of all major items of equipment before the equipment was
shipped from the factory to ensure compliance with the ATSM standards.
The run-of-the-river project consists of a gross
head of 41m, a design flow 2.9 cubic metres per second delivered from a 17m
wide, 3mhigh weir, with associated intake and settling basin structures
designed to 1:500 year flood event standard.
The water from the settling basin collection chamber
is delivered to the head of the penstock via a 1,907m GRP Class 6 headrace pipe
buried to 2.5 metres to avoid damage by landslip.
This is a first in PNG.
A 33m high, 3.5m diametre concrete walled surge tank
was installed at the upstream end of the 1.1m diameter 2,198m- long steel
penstock pipe to eliminate water hammer and air from the system.
The main civil contract works including the
headworks, headrace, surge tank, penstock and power house were construction
managed by China Railway Construction Group Ltd, with main civil works
construction undertaken by PNG company AGI Ltd.
All concrete was manufactured to specification from
two concrete batch plants established at the headworks and surge tank sites.
A concrete testing laboratory was established on
site.
The concrete
aggregate was won from local borrow pits and batch design was conducted on
site. All concrete tests conducted passed, including independent testing.
The steel penstock was manufactured in China to ATSM
standard and was supplied with factory coating internally and externally.
The pipes were joined using state of the art ‘argon
gas’ welding techniques (another first for PNG) overseen by the British
Institute of Welding representative engaged by the contractor.
All welds, both factory and field, were X-rayed and
10% ultrasonic tested with all welds passing.
The steel penstock pipe was hydrostatically tested
to 1.4 times working pressure and the bifurcation was tested to 1.5 times
working pressure in the factory before installation.
Over 75% of the project was undertaken by local
companies.
This is an
example where international and national companies from different ethnic,
political, cultural, and language, backgrounds joined in a spirit of
cooperation under IMC’s management to successfully deliver the project with no
major disputes and no significant delays.
IMC take this opportunity to thank the stakeholders
for the faith and trust placed in the construction and consulting team to
deliver this international standard project timely and under budget.
The principal of the developer stated in August 2012,
nearing the end of the construction phase, that the construction phase had
exceeded his expectations.
This is recognition enough for a job well done.
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