POWER July 2021 - 20

PLANT OF THE YEAR AWARD
digesting new government movement
control orders to come up with
a strategy " for how to navigate new
constraints. Eventually, however, when
cases were identified onsite, the project
team was forced to demobilize.
" Demobilizing meant that in this
case, almost everybody was leaving the
plant, " Vono noted. " But you can't just
pick up and go home. You have to have
a real strategy around how you ensure
the plant and equipment that you leave
behind will be preserved appropriately
and ready for when you return. "
Compounding the issue was that the
4. A worker onsite at the Track 4A power plant. Courtesy: GE
modular, which allows for quicker inspection
and maintenance activities
that go along with the services contract "
while also allowing a plant to go
into commercial operations " at a much
faster rate, " said Kulkarni.
The plant is controlled by GE's Mark
VIe integrated plant control system, an
ethernet-based system equipped with
intelligent controllers, input-output modules,
secure cloud connectivity solutions,
advanced analytics software, and
apps to provide real-time process optimization
and control of the plant's complex
processes. As part of its contract with
SPG, GE also inked a 21-year services
contract that includes GE Digital's Predix
Asset Performance Management
solutions software to improve asset visibility,
reliability, and availability, as well
as also reducing maintenance and operating
costs. In addition, data collected
from sensors throughout the facility will
be monitored and analyzed 24/7 at GE's
Monitoring & Diagnostics (M&D) Center
in Kuala Lumpur.
Addressing Unprecedented
Challenges
As SPG's Norlida underscored, the
company's choice of contractors fit the
bill as far as experience was concerned,
but combined, the companies also offered
the right measure of innovative
problem-solving necessary to bring the
first-of-its-kind plant online. Communication
was crucial. Norlida's own team,
notably, comprises highly talented
multi-skilled industry experts-most
who are younger than 40. " I'm very
20
passionate about my people, " she said.
" And we motivate them to keep their
mind open and encourage them " to express
their ideas, she said.
CTCI's Hsu also pointed to a diversity
of expertise as a key project benefit.
" The new 9HA.02 was built with the
most advanced technology that comes
with the most efficient output. The ancillary
equipment was built with modularized
design for transportation and site
installation, " he noted. " We faced certain
installation issue during construction period,
but it was solved promptly by the
expert of GE and remote support. There
were numerous technical advisors dispatched
from each aspect to assist the
installation and testing the works to ensure
the work go smoothly. "
The solid collaboration and vast expertise
proved especially crucial when
the pandemic disrupted all planning.
" Imagine how many people are onsite
between us and our partners CTCI and
the FieldCore team, " said Vono. " All of a
sudden COVID comes into play. We had
to work within these confines of keeping
the people safe from the traditional
perspective but then keeping the people
safe from the COVID perspective. " GE,
FieldCore, CTCI, and TNB " worked really
hand-in-hand to try to minimize any
risks that we had as the government
was handing down movement control
orders, " he said.
" We didn't have a playbook for something
as unprecedented as the COVID
pandemic between us, so we had to
develop certain things on the go, " Vono
said.
Efforts involved
" collectively "
www.powermag.com
team didn't know when it would be safe
to return. Ultimately, the team decided
to leave specialists behind to " maintain
our preservation requirements " on certain
equipment, he said.
AFRY, too, noted, the pandemic
posed a " serious challenge " during the
commissioning phase, because it " required
specific skills, from the technical
advisors to be deployed to the site. "
Challenges were " successfully overcome
by the goodwill of the Malaysian
government and other involved governments
of foreign countries playing a
part in the project, by permitting essential
technical personnel to travel, who
of course ensured that all COVID-19
restrictions were followed, " it said.
" The personnel could perform critical
work required at the site to make the
project a success despite the strict requirement
of adhering to all applicable
Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
due to the global pandemic. "
For Vono, if there was a glimmer to be
found during the pandemic, it was that
GE and its partners found a way to work
digitally and remotely- " to connect all
the people that we had to without actually
being at site. " Before the pandemic,
GE would " fly in all the subject matter
experts (SME's) that helped design " the
turbine model so they could " support
validations of NPIs [new product introductions],
optimize controls, support first
time commissioning activities and other
systems assessments. " Lockdowns all
over the world pushed the company to
depend on live visualization and online
collaboration, he said.
That added crucial time to simple
tasks, he said. " What used to take three
hours maybe takes nine. " But in the end,
the team completed a remarkable feat.
" It took everybody's sacrifice to make
that happen, " Vono said. ■
-Sonal Patel is a POWER
senior associate editor.
POWER | July 2021
http://www.powermag.com
POWER July 2021

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