How to capitalise on plant optimisation and hybridisation

Energising a mining operation is a huge expense, but it presents the biggest opportunity to optimise costs and help meet ESG goals. Energy costs have a huge impact on a mine’s total operating costs, therefore it is critical for mining companies to optimise their power infrastructure to optimise their profits.

Aggreko has been working as a long-term energy partner with mining operations across the globe and in Africa, guiding them on the right energy mix to achieve their energy transition aspirations and reducing their energy expenditures. The company works alongside the mining companies to provide a tailored solution that is designed for the actual location, load profile, power constraints and project specific requirements, as well as energy transition targets. These partnerships are driven by Aggreko’s commitment to creating better energy solutions in collaboration with its clients.

With mining companies in all corners of the world facing capital expenditure constraints, the idea of updating or decarbonising their systems can seem like a distant and complex goal.

Aggreko works with its customers to accelerate their energy transition visions and journey, by assisting them to optimise their current power infrastructure and set-up and upgrade their generation technology to the most efficient available on the market. Aggreko further helps mining companies transition to lower-impact carbon fuels such as gas through LNG or LPG virtual pipelines or hybridising their thermal plants by adding renewables and energy storage solutions.

Improving power performance

The implementation of hybrid power is one way in which miners can drastically improve efficiency and their energy costs, as well as improve site performance and power quality of their sites. As mines are going deeper and more remote than ever before, finding innovative ways to keep costs and emissions in check is an ongoing challenge.

Hybrid power plants combine the advantages of renewable energy and battery storage with the reliability of thermal generators. The integration of different components comes with some complexities but is needed to ensure a reliable supply of energy, particularly in industries such as mining, where downtime is not only costly but poses a health risks. This is where it is critical to work with a long-term energy partner such as Aggreko to navigate the complexities and ensure that the integration is optimised to implement successfully the best, most reliable and costeffective solution.

Aggreko’s Hybrid Energy Solution gives greater power quality and resilience and delivers savings to projects by improving the overall plant efficiency, thereby reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions. ■