“One year of constant heavy drilling, and not a single second of downtime”
PJ Smyth, Service & Maintenance Supervisor, Energyst Ireland
“One year of constant heavy drilling, and not a single second of downtime”
PJ Smyth, Service & Maintenance Supervisor, Energyst Ireland
In January 2011, Shell Ireland was granted permission for the construction of the Corrib Gas Onshore Pipeline. One that is 8.3 km long, 4.9 km of which will be constructed within a tunnel. The majority of which will run under the Sruwaddacon Bay tidal estuary in County Mayo. When constructed, the tunnel will be the longest tunnel in Ireland and the longest gas pipeline tunnel anywhere in Europe. You can probably imagine, this will take heavy and long drilling.
Following in a long tunneling tradition of naming TBMs, the Corrib TBM has been named ‘Fionnuala’, a name derived from Irish mythology, meaning ‘white shoulder’. And a very strong shoulder as well, as it turned out. Conditions under which it had to perform were quite challenging. Naturally, because of the enormous amounts of rock, stone, sand and mud it had to drill through. After initial positioning, assembling and commissioning Fionnuala began her 18 month journey in January 2013. The single shield TBM is 140 metres long, weighs almost 500 tons and comprises 14 sections. The 28-tonne cutter head drills under the Sruwaddacon Bay using a combination of cutter discs, scrapers and buckets and it has two 400 kW motors to turn it.
That is to say: together with Energyst. During the project the main utility in this part of Ireland failed on occasion due to severe weather conditions. But because Shell Ireland was using Energyst generators, they suffered zero downtime and could keep on drilling. And, May 2014, as a result of an outstanding process and a truly committed team, Fionnualla ended her 4.9 km journey. With 40,000 engine running hours clocked up on the generators, and with lots of long days and nights servicing and maintaining the power plant Fionnualla, powered by our highly reliable 810 kVA generators and 1600 kVA transformers, came out at the other end of the Corrib tunnel.
“We are proud to say, that because of our 24/7 commitment on site, combined with our reliable CAT hardware, our client was always 100% carefree.”
PJ Smyth
Service & Maintenance Supervisor at Energyst Ireland
As we will, for another ten to twelve months with four 810 kVA generators remaining on site while the gas pipe is being installed, sealed and pressure tested. PJ Smith, Service & Maintenance Supervisor of Energyst Ireland: “We are proud to say, that because of our 24/7 commitment on site, combined with our reliable CAT hardware, our client was always 100% carefree.”
To find out more about our design and engineering expertise, or to ask our advice on power, heating or cooling, contact your nearest Energyst rental location or simply call 00800 3637 4978. We will put all our energy into helping you find the right solution.
For the Western Tunnels project we designed a tailored portable, low emissions underground power solution: “Energyst makes custom solutions feel as easy and carefree as standard ones”.
We are totally committed to finding you the best solution. No project, sector or branch of industry is the same, so if a standard system is not sufficient, we will create a custom solution to suit your needs. After all, that’s what we do best.