POWER July 2021 - 16

PLANT OF THE YEAR AWARD
Technology Triumph: Track 4A Is
POWER's Plant of the Year
Courtesy: GE
Winning POWER's highest honor is Track 4A, Southern Power Generation's 1.4-GW
natural gas-fired power plant in southern Malaysia that is equipped with the first
commercial GE 9HA.02 gas turbines-one of the world's largest and most efficient
power-generating models. Though jolted by the pandemic, an international team
brought this first-of-a-kind plant online through innovative continuity efforts. The
project is today a showcase of advanced technology integration and a meaningful
model for balancing climate awareness, energy affordability, and reliability in powerhungry
Southeast Asia.
Sonal Patel
im Vono, services general manager
for GE Power's Asia Pacific
and South Asian division, recalled
a poignant moment in mid-March 2020,
mere days before Malaysia's government
instituted a partial lockdown as an
early response to the deadly COVID-19
pandemic. It was as thousands of people
around the world who were involved in
the design, testing, and construction of
the world's first GE 9HA.02 gas turbine
model awaited news of first fire at Unit 1
of the two-unit 1,440-MW Track 4A power
plant in Pasir Gudang. The milestone
had crested from a " collective success,
when tracked from the project's notice
to proceed " in October 2017. " It was
quite incredible, " said Vono. The 9HA.02
" is a massive, massive piece of equipment,
and to see it leave the factory, all
the complexity of moving that massive
equipment to a port, put on a ship to get
it to site, removing it, transporting it, and
then placed on its foundation-and eventually
see it all put together to create this
amazing feat of engineering and physics, "
he said. " It's special. "
But for all the activity that led up to
J
that tremendous accomplishment, in the
weeks that followed it, the government
handed down more movement control
16
orders, abruptly slowing the project's trajectory.
However, the project ultimately
achieved commercial operation for Unit
1 on Jan. 1, 2021, and Unit 2 on Feb. 19,
2021. Even if well behind initial operation
dates of June 2020 for Unit 1 and
August 2020 for Unit 2, it was a feat accomplished,
having overcome unprecedented,
potentially paralyzing challenges.
But Track 4A is also POWER's 2021
Plant of the Year Award winner because
the landmark $1.1 billion project
showcases an array of first-of-their-kind
equipment. It both delineates a marked
advancement for gas turbine technology
and integrates it into a larger stateof-the-art
system that is equipped to
address present and future hurdles
anticipated within a rapidly changing
power landscape. Today, while the plant
ensures reliability of a power-hungry region,
it also provides affordable power
that caters to government-led climate
change mitigation efforts.
1. This graphic illustrates the separate roles played by companies affiliated with the Track 4A
project. Courtesy: Southern Power Generation (SPG)
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POWER | July 2021

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POWER July 2021

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