Case study Optimisation of Vale/Sumitomo’s Isaac Plains CHPP

When Ausenco was awarded an Operations and Maintenance contract at the Isaac Plains Coal Handling and Preparation Plant (CHPP) in 2008, the plant was partly commissioned and unable to meet name plate capacity.

Six months later it was a different story. Not only had the plant reached its name plate capacity, its yield had increased by a further 2% thanks to some clever process engineering and debottlenecking work.

Five years on, and we are still finding ways to optimise the operations and maintenance of the plant leading to better availability and lower overall operating costs. Our contract at Isaac Plains was renewed in October 2012 for an extension period of 27 months, with an option to extend for an additional 24 months – four years and three months in total. We are determined to continually focus on adding increased value for IPCM over the coming years.

In 2012 Ausenco acquired 75% of the Rylson Group, a global asset management and reliability engineering group, which was renamed Ausenco Rylson. As part of our continuous improvement program at Isaac Plains, Ausenco Rylson conducted an audit of our operations and maintenance processes with the intent of determining ways to enhance existing maintenance strategies and practices. The audit focused on three key areas; Maintenance Strategy, Work Management System and Cost Management.

As a result of the audits, it was determined that there were significant opportunities to reduce unplanned maintenance by adopting a maintenance strategy based on Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) practices, and to base routine maintenance activities for each component on operating statistics and actual failure modes. By applying an inverted “Risked Based Approach” to the standard Asset Management approach, we were able to ensure the financial goals of the client were aligned with the Availability and Reliability requirements defined within the business plan.

In applying that maintenance strategy, designed in our proprietary Rylson8* (R8) system, we were able to update the site Work Management System (WMS) to better plan and schedule maintenance activities across the site. The net result was a reduction in the number of regular shutdowns per year from 17 to 10 and a reduced reliance on sub-contracted labour required for the maintenance of the plant.

Our R8 system also allows us to quickly modify the maintenance strategy to assess the effects of either advancing or delaying maintenance expenditure on both the availability and lifecycle costs of the plant. This means that we are able to make rapid decisions, based on real data, to manage our costs effectively without jeopardising production.

Above Isaac Plains Coal Handling Preparation Plant, Queensland, Australia

Case study Optimisation of Vale/Sumitomo’s Isaac Plains CHPP

We modified the maintenance strategy and installed R8 at site more than a year ago. Figure 1 demonstrates that, despite reduced maintenance spend, plant availability has not decreased during the past two years. In fact, over the past 12 months, the availability of the plant has increased from 91% to 95.1%.

This trend is due to more preventative maintenance being undertaken while the plant is operating, utilising the existing staff. Importantly, unplanned maintenance has decreased from 33.1 hours/month to 23.8 hours/month over the same period – as outlined on Figure 2.

www.ausenco.comwww.rylson8.com* Rylson8 is a total asset management solution designed to maximise

return on investment and improve cost to revenue ratios.

88.0

89.0

90.0

91.0

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96.0

2012 2013

Availability – BudgetAvailability – ActualAvailability Trend

Figure 1 – CHPP Availability

2012 20130.0

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10.0

15.0

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35.0

Un-planned Maint hr/mthPower (Un-planned Maint hr/mth)

Figure 2 – Un-planned Maint hr/mth

By utilising our specialist asset management and reliability engineering capabilities, Ausenco has helped Isaac Plains Coal Management Pty Ltd (IPCM) attain an increased return on capital expended. Brent Gee, IPCM’s Representative, recently acknowledged that “Ausenco has assisted IPCM to optimise its CHPP and to reduce operating and maintenance costs through a process of continuous improvement. We recommend Ausenco as a competent and reliable operator”.

The processes, techniques and experience we have brought to IPCM are equally relevant for any asset, either fixed or mobile, and we are confident that our approach can show the same benefits to operators of these assets.

AU $ 2013

11%IdentifiedSavings

45%IdentifiedSavings

2014

34%IdentifiedSavings

2015

21%IdentifiedSavings

2016

Figure 3 – AU $ Savings per annum

Original AMP StrategyImplemented Strategy – R8

Figure 3 below shows the decrease in maintenance costs expressed as a percentage of the annual maintenance spend, as forecast over the next four years.