Power plant upgrade for Alstom

has won a contract worth €110m to refurbish the 2,100MW Arnot coal-fired power plant in South Africa, and increase its power output by 300MW to 2,400MW. State-owned utility company Eskom owns the plant.

For each of Arnot’s six steam generating units, Alstom will carry out a complete retrofit for the high pressure and intermediate pressure steam turbines. There will also be a capacity upgrade of the low pressure steam turbine and the replacement and upgrade of associated turbine side pumps and auxiliaries. In addition, Alstom will carry out major upgrading works to the boiler plant, including supply of new pressure part components, new burners, and modification to other equipment such as the coal mills and classifiers, fans and heaters.

The first unit is scheduled to be completed by December 2007 and the last unit by December 2010.

Alstom is planning an integrated plant retrofit approach for this project, which encompasses many major generating plant components such as boilers and turbines. The Arnot capacity increase project (ACIP) is the first combined capacity increase and retrofit project in South Africa.