ELB Engineering Services (Pty) Ltd is pleased to announce the successful completion of its first official concrete pour at the Ngodwana Energy (RF) (Pty) Ltd, 25MW biomass power project (Ngodwana Biomass Project). The project is being erected at the Sappi Ngodwana Mill site, 40km from Nelspruit in the Mpumalanga Province, which will use waste material from the surrounding plantations to generate power into the national grid.

ELB Engineering Services (Pty) Ltd (ELB), KC Cottrell (KCC) and the ELB Educational Trust, (ELB-KCC Consortium) together as a Consortium, have been appointed as EPC contractor for the Ngodwana Biomass Project by Ngodwana Energy (RF) Proprietary Limited. The project forms part of the projects awarded under the fourth bid round of the South African Government Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPPP).

The first concrete pour was done for a section of the boiler building raft foundation and was about 300 m3. This boiler forms part of the power island which consists of the boiler, turbine, cooling towers, a precipitator and a stack. The power island is built on 507, 15m deep piles, and the boiler raft foundation is cast on top of the piles and consist of 1000 m³ concrete and 115 tons of rebar. Concrete is supplied from Lafarge in Nelspruit.

The ELB-KCC Consortium appreciates the commitment from our suppliers on the Ngodwana Biomass Project site. NPE, a local contractor was awarded the civil works contract for the project. These suppliers have shown their intention to meet the obligations under the project schedule. Prior to their involvement, Franki pile also completed all of the piling work within the required timeframe. With suppliers like these we are positive that they will meet their tight project schedule.

KCC will be providing the Power Island, consisting of boiler, turbine generator, cooling towers and air pollution control system, while ELB is responsible for the civil work, fuel handling, electrical switchyard and site erection. KCC is a Korean based company and over the past couple of years a good working relationship has been established with ELB.

“The Consortium is honoured to have been appointed as the EPC contractor to supply the power plant for this project and we are looking forward to an exciting, mutually beneficial, long lasting alliance with our project partners” says Hertzog Verhoef – Project Manager ELB.

ELB Engineering Services is an internationally recognised technology driven holistic solutions provider to the mining, power, port, construction and industrial sectors. This is achieved through ELB generated innovation, supply of equipment and technology from our world class partners, in-house developed expertise and integration of the services and products from the ELB Group of companies.