E-Crane® solves Nova Scotia Power’s unloading conundrum

Nova Scotia Power (NSPI) seeks economy and flexibility from their offloading equipment.

As a result of the recent changes in the fuel availability for the Province of Nova Scotia NSPI, decided to construct the Point Tupper Terminal to import low sulfur coal for their Lingan, Point Aconi, Tupper and Trenton plants.

Point Tupper is located in the Strait of Canso. This Area has been free of ice since 1955 and is located on the “Great Circle Atlantic Shipping Route” which places it directly in the path of international shippers.

NSPI searched for the optimum offloading solution and decided to purchase a 2000 Series, Model 21382 E-Crane® with a 30yd3 bucket and an outreach of 38.2 meters to be able to offload Panamax size vessels This crane is mounted on a high portal rail undercarriage and features a connecting link to the receiving hopper to assure a constant distance between the hopper and the crane for ease of operation.

NSPI’s docking facility is 134 m long and 13.6m wide to accommodate a wide range of vessels. This means that there was no room to assemble the Crane on site, as is the normal practice. Instead, the crane was completely assembled on shore in Belgium

with a total operating weight of 385,000 Kg, lifted onto a Jumbo Transport ship equipped with 2 – 800 ton cranes, shipped and offloaded by the same vessel at the NSPI terminal in June of 2005. Once safely on the dock the crane was commissioned by the manufacturer’s Belgian and the Importer’s US based engineering team.

The E-Crane offers the user flexibility to take advantage of changes in the solid fuel supply as well as offloading limestone required to meet the latest emission laws. Some utilities gain another advantage by loading (and selling) these combustion by-products (gypsum) with the E-crane.

Other recent deliveries of E-Cranes:

• A 1500 Series, Model 9264 E-crane to offload Coal for the AEP-Tanners Creek Power plant on the Ohio river, near Cincinnati.
• A 700 Series, Model 4264 E-crane to offload grains for the Goldkist feed mill in Guntersville, AL.

Future developments

To maintain and expand its lead in modern crane design, Indusign, the Belgium based manufacturer of the E-cranes, is in the final stages of developing the “B” series E-cranes. These cranes will incorporate state of the art electronically controlled hydraulic circuits instead of pilot pressure control, for example.

This will facilitate the interfacing of electronic motor controls and power management as well as incorporating feedback from the load sensing system as well as enable technicians with remote diagnosis and adjustment capabilities.

E-Crane International USA is headquartered in Bucyrus OH to market and support the Belgian made E-cranes in the American continent.

The picture above: This series 700, model 4264 E-Crane® to offload grains was delivered to the Goldkist feed mill in Guntersville, AL.