The Challenge:
Increasing Material Throughput Despite Changing River Levels
The FGD upgrade at Lowman Power Plant increased the facility’s material unloading requirements, creating the need for a more capable system for handling coal and limestone from barges. Changing water levels on the Tombigbee River added another operational challenge, complicating barge positioning and unloading with the existing equipment. The previous gantry rope crane also presented concerns related to maintenance, reliability, safety, and operator fatigue. PowerSouth therefore needed a solution that could simplify barge handling while reliably supporting the plant’s increased material requirements.
“E-Crane® maintenance is simple, quick and easy. The E-Crane® is much safer and more reliable than the old gantry rope crane. And the E-Crane® system is easy to operate, so the fatigue factor is less. With the floating terminal, the barges are always at the same level as the E-Crane® making it easy to bring them into position, unload them, and move them on.”
Mike Barton – Utility Supervisor, Powersouth Energy
“The E-Crane® system has cut our unloading time in half, cut our maintenance time dramatically, and just generally simplified our lives and reduced our costs substantially.”
Tom Noble
The Solution:
A Turnkey Floating Terminal for Coal and Limestone Unloading
E-Crane developed a complete floating terminal designed around the plant’s increased unloading requirements and the changing conditions of the Tombigbee River. By integrating the crane and supporting material handling equipment into one system, the solution simplifies the entire process of positioning, unloading, and moving barges.
The solution includes:
BUSINESS OUTCOME
