The Engineering, Installation, Integration and Operation of a 20 Mw Co-generating Turbine Alternator at Hippo Valley Estates

The installed backpressure power generation capacity at Hippo Valley Estates (HVE) comprised a number of old and small sets, which had become inadequate to reliably supply the total power requirements of the mill and estate. A new 20 MW backpressure turbine alternator (TA) was installed to satisfy the full factory demand on its own and export a surplus to the national grid. The project was completed in fifteen months and the TA was synchronised during the crushing season as planned. This article describes the benefits, identifies the issues and shares some of the lessons learned in engineering, installing and operating the largest unit of its kind in Africa.