pwr_october-2023 - 28

TOP PLANT
Melaka: Malaysia's 2.2-GW
Cutting-Edge Combined Cycle
Gas Power Plant
Courtesy: Edra Power Holdings
The Edra Melaka Power Plant (EMPP), the world's second GE 9HA.02 gas turbine
power plant, is the largest combined cycle gas-fired power plant currently in operation
in Malaysia. A POWER Top Plant winner, the project functions as a critical transitional
installation that balances the country's reliability, energy affordability, and sustainability
initiatives.
Sonal Patel
alaysia has made assertive leaps
over the past decade to reshape
its domestic energy landscape
so that it fits within the palpable shift in
the worldwide stance on sustainability,
but still reliably shoulders load growth
from its burgeoning manufacturing and
services economy, and leverages
M
its
indigenous gas resources to ensure energy
security at affordable prices. Under
a recently issued National Energy Transition
Roadmap, the Southeast Asian
country will phase out almost all of its installed
coal power capacity-which comprised
37% of its total mix in 2021-by
2050, with 7 GW expected to be retired
by 2033. The country will instead seek
to boost its renewables capacity share
to 70% (58% of which could be solar
PV) by 2050. Recognizing potential supply
shortfalls from its rapid pace of coal
retirements in the years approaching
2029, Malaysia has recently outlined a
gas power build-out that leverages more
modern and efficient combined cycle gas
turbine (CCGT) power plant technology.
One of the first projects brought
online under an approved fast-track
generation development plan for Peninsular
Malaysia was Southern Power
Generation's 1.4-GW Track 4A (Sultan
Ibrahim Power Plant) in Pasir Gudang, a
project that won POWER's 2021 Plant
of the Year award for its myriad attributes,
including that it showcased the
28
first pair of commercial GE 9HA.02 gas
turbines. In February 2022, Edra Melaka
Power Plant (EMPP), a three-block 2.2GW
CCGT plant owned by Edra Power
Holdings Sdn. Bhd., began commercial
operation in Alor Gajah, Melaka
State-effectively becoming the world's
second 9HA.02 CCGT project. (A third
1.4-GW 9HA.02 project at Bang Pakong
in Thailand has since been completed.)
Critical for Grid Stability
According to Edra, the EMPP was necessary
to enhance regional power supply
reliability and sustainability. While the
Peninsula Malaysia's southwestern coast
is seeing booming economic growth owing
to its thriving services, manufacturing,
and agricultural sectors, it has faced a
" number of retired power plants, as well
as having operated several power plants
with low-efficient combined cycle power
plants, such as E and F gas turbines, "
Edra noted. The region has also grappled
with " scarcity of fossil fuel availability in
addition to the requirements to further
limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emission to
a single digit, " it said.
At full operation, EMPP generates
about 19.6 GWh annually, contributing
to about 10% of Peninsular Malaysia's
demand, Edra noted. The massive scale
of the plant-each of its three 745-MW
single-shaft generating blocks includes
a GE 9HA.02 gas turbine, an STF-D650
steam turbine, a W88 generator, and
www.powermag.com
a GE heat recovery steam generator
(HRSG)-was also necessary to ensure
grid stability and economically competitive
power prices. As such a significant
contributor to systemwide supply, the
plant forms a critical system segment.
That's why the project was designed
as " blocks, " Anbarasan Sellappan, deputy
chief operation officer at Edra, told
POWER. " The system remains reliable
with unit-based synchronization. "
Diligent Project Execution Despite
Challenges
However, getting the giant plant built required
careful project management and
diligent execution. Edra, notably, faced a
tight schedule dictated by a 2017-signed
21-year power purchase agreement
(PPA) secured with Tenaga Nasional Bhd.
(TNB), Malaysia's largest electrical utility.
The PPA stipulated a construction period
from the notice to proceed (NTP) of 36
months for the first block, 38 months
for the second block, and 40 months for
the third block, targeting full commercial
operation by May 2021. All three blocks
ultimately achieved commercial operations
consecutively in December 2021,
January 2022, and February 2022.
" There was certainly an urgent need
to complete the project on time in order
to fulfill its PPA obligation to achieve
commercial operation within the specified
dates, " Edra said. Delays posed liabilities
of liquidated damages, it noted.
POWER | October 2023

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PWR_ October-2023

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