Turbine Control Systems to be Supplied for Mongolia’s Largest Thermal Power Plant

Yokogawa Electric Corporation (the Netherlands) recently announced that it has received an order to supply turbine control systems for thermal power plant No. 4, the largest thermal power plant in Mongolia. This 2.1 billion yen project is being undertaken to improve the efficiency of this facility’s operations.

Located in Mongolia’s capital city, Ulaanbaatar, thermal power plant No. 4 has a total capacity of 703 MW and accounts for approximately 70% of the electricity output to the central energy system in Mongolia. The plant also supplies 1,373 Gcal/h (12,000 t/h) of hot water for the district heating system in Ulaanbaatar, meeting about 65% of the city’s heating demand. Temperatures in this region fall as low as −40ºC in mid-winter, so this power plant is a crucial lifeline for the city’s residents.

This project, which is financed by a Japanese ODA loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), will improve the efficiency of power generation and stabilise the supply of electricity and hot water by this plant. For six of the plant’s turbines, obsolete mechanical speed governors will be converted to electronic governors, and control systems and instrumentation will be replaced. In addition to supplying the CENTUM VP integrated production control system for the control and monitoring of the turbine governors and auxiliary facilities such as the feed water pump control system, Yokogawa will provide field devices such as DPharp EJA series differential pressure/pressure transmitters, FLXA21/FLXA202 liquid analysers, control valves, and safety valves. Yokogawa will also have full responsibility for the implementation of this renovation project, starting with the survey of existing facilities and proceeding through to the detailed design, delivery, and installation of instruments, related erection work, commissioning, and staff training. This work will proceed in stages, and the first of the renovated turbines is scheduled to be returned to service in June 2017.

Yokogawa received orders during 1997 and 2003 to provide control systems as part of a project to renovate the boilers and related instrumentation at this power plant. Consequently, all of these facilities are now monitored and controlled by Yokogawa CENTUM series integrated production control systems. As the result of these renovations, this power station was able to reduce its coal consumption by more than 20% over the 1997 to 2007 timeframe. This has confirmed Yokogawa’s capability with this customer over the past 20 years, and Yokogawa was awarded this turbine control renovation project as a consequence. Yokogawa Engineering Asia, will play a leading role in this undertaking.

Mongolia’s real GDP has grown at an 11.3% rate over the last five years, and its government is now grappling with the rising demand for electricity and the need to reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted by ageing power generation facilities. Yokogawa plans to expand its efforts in Mongolia and other emerging markets to address such issues through the supply of control solutions.