News

2019 UPDATE

2019 has been a year of major challenges in the power industry in Zimbabwe. Severe drought has caused hydro power generation to be significantly reduced. The reduction in hydro power has placed tremendous pressure on the thermal power stations to produce the shortfall. This includes Hwange Power Station where TES offers maintenance services to the Stage Two 220MW Doosan Babcock boilers.

All this has happened at a time when the economy is characterised by lack of foreign currency and scarcity of funding to meet the ever increasing operating costs, which were being fuelled by high inflation.

Coupled to these facts, the Hwange plant is towards the end of its design life.  Generation pressure has led to maintenance outages having to be deferred. These factors place a large strain on the maintenance system and reliability of the plant.

As can be expected the challenges on the plant continue to grow. TES, with the support of the OEMs, is planning work for the bigger and more complex tasks as the plant reaches the end of its design life in order to solve problems being experienced and improve reliability, so the client is able to maximise production and reduce the electricity deficit being experienced in Zimbabwe.

2018 UPDATE

2018 can be summarized as a year characterized by the difficult economic operating environment. Technosphere managed to get through all challenges presented and are grateful for the progress made, partnerships built, lessons learnt and the opportunity to continue improving the engineering solutions we are able to offer clients in Zimbabwe. We hope to continue strengthening our existing partnerships moving into 2018.

Technosphere has added 140t of high quality access scaffold to our inventory. This addition widens the range of services we are able to offer and improves the safety our employees whilst working on a client’s plant. Good, safe access provides the point from where an artisan gets to the workface. A strong, stable and secure working platform is vital in giving them the confidence to perform and focus on the task at hand.

Quality, Health, Safety & Environment

Quality, Health, Safety & Environment are key to our business as well as that of our clients. Our focus is on ensuring quality workmanship and zero harm to the people, plant and the environment we operate in.

Technosphere’s  strategy is to certify all our operational and safety processes to ISO9001:2015 and OHSAS 18001/ISO 14001 respectively to show our commitment to customer satisfaction and the safety and wellbeing of our employees and the community we operate in.

Projects

Technosphere, as the main contractor on the pressure parts, has recently completed Hwange Power Station Stage 2 Boiler 6 Major Overhaul as part of ZPC’s ongoing plant improvements and rehabilitation of Hwange Power Station.  We had the support of the following sub contractors during the project Doosan Babcock, Southey Contracting, Power Systems and Flextra Engineered products.

With expert support from Doosan Babcock we replaced the complete top and bottom economizer banks as well as the platen super heater bottom chevrons on unit 6. A very large undertaking necessitating the movement of nearly 1000 tons of steel and nearly 3000 high pressure welds all performed by Zimbabwean welders tested to our procedures. The welds achieved an extremely good pass rate under NDT with no failures during the hydraulic testing of the boiler on completion.

In addition to the economizer and platens, we conducted major refurbishment work on the Rotary Air heaters, Tube Ball Mills, Coal Feeders, Induced Draught Fans, Forced Draught Fans, Duct Expansion Joints and the Pulverized Fuel lines.

The project had its technical and procurement challenges due to the prevailing economic challenges that extended the project timelines but the plant is now back with ZPC and output in terms of Megawatts produced has increased. Before the unit went for outage it was producing 149 MW on average it is now operating just above 170MW.

This project proved a very valuable experience, time spent with hugely experienced OEM engineers and the transfer of knowledge and skills to local artisans mean we look forward to upcoming projects with confidence and knowledge we are able to deliver a better service.

SKILLS EXPANSION

As Technosphere Energy Services we are in the process of updating our skills database as part of our ISO9001:2015 certification program and we are inviting all interested qualified artisans and skilled manpower  in the  following trades to send through their applications to hr@technosphere.co.zw  for consideration ;

  • Rigging
  • Boiler Making
  • Welding
  • HP Welding
  •  Fitting and turning
  •  Electrical
  • Scaffolding Erection

We value the skills, safety and health of our work teams in providing  quality services to our  client’s expectations  and we have been entrusted with the responsibility to carry out an overhaul of one of the units at Hwange Thermal  Power Station, hence the call for skilled manpower to apply for consideration as part of our recruitment process. We recognize that the information we hold on behalf of our customers and about our people is as vital to the safe and reliable operation of plant and equipment as any physical asset we work on.

The major overhaul scope  will include, but not limited to;

  • The renewal of Economiser Elements, Inlet and Outlet Headers and Support System
  • The renewal of off lower Chevron sections of the Platen Superheater Pendant
  • Boiler Inspections: Pressure Parts, Main Boiler Supports, Duct & Expansion Joints.
  • Overhaul of PF Pipework: Valves, Viking Couplings, Bends and Liners
  • Overhaul of PF Burners: PA & CA Tubes, Tips, Igniters and Swirlers,
  • Overhaul of Milling Plant: Renew Mill Balls, Liners, Inspect Gear Box & Motors
  • Overhaul of Coal Feeders: Inspect and change Chains, Gear Box & Motors
  • Overhaul of FD & ID Fans: Inspect and report, Check Drive, Gear Box & Motors
  • Overhaul of Dampers: Check and repair Seals, Blades, Drives and Bearings
  • Overhaul of Air Heaters: Remove & Clean Baskets, Check Seals, Drives & Bearings
  • Boiler Cleaning: Furn be paace Walls, Economiser, Platen Superheater Pendants, Air Ducts.
  • Access Scaffold: Boiler Internal, Platen Superheater and Economiser

All interested qualified candidates who wish to be part of our skills database should submit their applications accompanied with copies of academic and professional certificates not later than 1 October 2016.

POWERING OUR WAY INTO 2016

First of all, we would like to extend our warm greetings to all our stakeholders including our employees, customers and suppliers as we approach the 2016 winter season.

As a company in the power sector, approaching the winter season has never been different as we know and fully understand that people will need electricity to light up their cozy homes as they enjoy their winter season. As the principal contractor for Hwange Power Station Stage 2, and responsible for the maintenance of boiler equipment with help from Doosan Babcock, we had to prepare for the winter season in a timely manner hence the recent successful completion of the Unit 6 Winter Mini Outage project. With a dedicated team of qualified engineers, artisans, assistants and administration staff, we managed to complete the project in 12 days, well beyond our customer’s expectations as we always strive do so in all our projects. Customer satisfaction is critical to our success that is why we take our customers’ requirements and expectations seriously as they form the basis of our service delivery. We are guided by ISO9001:2015 in all our processes hence we strive to provide quality services to our customers and create value in all our business dealings. Below are some of the highlights of the recently completed Unit 6 Mini Outage Project;

  • Boiler dirty inspection
  • Replaced worn out platen superheater wraparounds and furnace wall tubes
  • Replaced air release valves
  • Replaced one manual isolating reheat drain valve
  • Maintenance of PF system
  • Maintenance of coal feeders
  • Rotary air heaters inspection and skin casing patching
  • Inspected the air heater support and guide bearings
  • Preventive maintenance of pinion lube oil system and Trunion lube oil system
  • Inspection of the pinion and girth gears
  • Overhaul of girth grease pumps
  • ID fan bearing (white metal) inspection
  • Overhaul of ID fan impeller blades
  • Boiler hydraulic test

In March 2016, we carried out another successful emergency outage on Unit 5 Mills which we completed well within the targeted time frame. Below are some the highlights.

  • Replaced damaged shell liners
  • Maintenance to Pulverized Fuel line
  • Inspection of Air heaters
  • Preventive maintenance of mill pinion and Trunion lube oil system
  • Thickness survey of economizer bends
  • Boiler hydraulic test

We appreciate the value of safety and training of our employees as they are critical to the success of Technosphere Energy Services. We always engage NSSA (National Social Security Authority)’s Occupational Health and Safety department when it comes to training of our employees. We have NSSA approved Responsible Persons for Pressure parts within our team as required by statues as we also strive to fulfil all legal obligations applicable to us as Technosphere Energy Services.

Last but not least, Technosphere Energy Services is currently in the transition process from ISO9001:2008 to the new ISO9001:2015 Quality Management System Requirements as part of our continual improvement efforts and we hope to achieve certification by December 2016.

All said and done, we wish you a warm winter ahead and urge all Zimbabweans to use electricity wisely.