Underground water has been a major issue for Centennial Coal’s Springvale mining site, which is why the mining company contracted Ampcontrol to design, manufacture, assemble and test a relocatable switchroom along with commissioning the high voltage switchgear and Toshiba VVVF Drive System.
Ampcontrol’s Grant Waring, Senior Electrical Engineer, explained, “The Centennial Coal site has traditionally experienced major, widespread underground water issues. The Ampcontrol switchroom therefore needed to be relocatable, allowing for power supply to support the pumping of water in a range of locations.”
The switchroom is designed to run a 4kV variable frequency 700kW submersible borehole pump at a depth of 390m with an output flow rate of 100 litres per second.
As experts in hazardous area design, Ampcontrol successfully developed the switchroom with the borehole in mind and incorporated explosion protection, based on Ex p, for the borehole and pumping operations.
“This is the first in a series of switchroom designs for this site,” adds Waring, “and we are looking forward to working with the range of challenges the site will ‘throw at us’ in the future.”
To find out more, read the full case study.