8.4-capacity-increase-2-48a982ec576f0d9d.pdf

This report provides a comprehensive life-extension (Life-ex) and capacity increase assessment for the Hendrina Power Station, focusing on the boiler, turbine, electrical, and common plant areas. It evaluates the feasibility of increasing plant capacity by 10% and extending operational life to 2025 or 2035, detailing the current poor condition of various motor fleets and piping systems, and recommending significant upgrades, including a transition to a 'Tower Boiler' design for Units 1-5.

• The LV and MV motor fleets are in poor condition due to advanced age (40 years vs. a 20-year design life), harsh environments, and lack of condition-based maintenance. They are deemed unable to reliably operate the station until 2025 or 2035 and must be replaced before any capacity increase is considered.
• For Boiler Units 1-5, the OEM recommends modifying existing El-Paso boilers to a 'Tower Boiler' design. This upgrade is intended to reduce erosion rates, decrease air leakage for more efficient operations, eliminate fireside corrosion issues via furnace wall replacement, and reduce outage costs over the next 15 years.
• A 10% capacity increase would likely be unrealizable for MV motors due to existing incapacity; if attempted, it would reduce their already inadequate remaining life by a factor of 1.5 to 2.0.
• The main steam piping system requires complete replacement to support operation up to 2035, as the required 22-year life extension matches the typical 200,000-hour design life of such systems.
• Milling capacity is a critical constraint; process investigations show less than a 5% margin for current requirements when using lower calorific value coal. To achieve a capacity increase, the OEM recommends upgrading milling capacity with high-volume static classifiers.
• The spray water system and auxiliary steam lines are largely expected to fail before 2025 or 2035. The report recommends full system replacement for the spray water system to avoid expensive and frequent isolated replacements.
• The existing generator protection system cannot support a 10% capacity increase, although a replacement project is already underway to resolve this limitation.
• For Boiler Units 6-10, the superheater headers and interconnecting piping are recommended for replacement, as inspection-based remaining life estimates are between 8 and 12 years, which only extends to 2024 at best.
• The PA Fans are in poor condition, specifically the casings, which have been worn by fly-ash and require replacement.
• To comply with the Air Quality act by 2020, the existing coal burners must be replaced with low NOx axial swirl burners.

APA

Centre for Environmental Rights (n.d.). 8.4-capacity-increase-2-48a982ec576f0d9d.pdf. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/8.4-Capacity-Increase-2.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Centre for Environmental Rights. 8.4-capacity-increase-2-48a982ec576f0d9d.pdf. n.d. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/8.4-Capacity-Increase-2.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Centre for Environmental Rights |title=8.4-capacity-increase-2-48a982ec576f0d9d.pdf |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/8.4-Capacity-Increase-2.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centreforenvironmentalrightsnd84capacityincrease248a982ec576f0d9dpdf, author = {{Centre for Environmental Rights}}, title = {{8.4-capacity-increase-2-48a982ec576f0d9d.pdf}}, institution = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/8.4-Capacity-Increase-2.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }