B&W awarded contract to upgrade Suralaya boilers

Ohio-based Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc. (B&W PGG), a major operating unit of The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W), has been awarded a contract to refurbish two B&W Radiant Tower-type boilers at the Suralaya Steam Power Plant on Java Island.

B&W PGG will redesign and supply superheater and reheater surface, low NOx combustion systems, pulverizer performance enhancements, and other boiler upgrade equipment.

The contract was signed with Marubeni Corporation, the prime contractor on the Suralaya rehabilitation project. The Suralaya plant is owned by state lectricity firm PLN which is overhauling the 3,400-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant to extend its life, improve its efficiency and reduce emissions.

Suralaya's Units 1 and 2, currently 400 MW each, were originally supplied by B&W in the early 1980s. The upgrades will increase the capacity of each unit to 440 MW.

Engineering is underway at B&W PGG's Barberton, Ohio, headquarters and material delivery is expected in late 2009 and early 2010. P.T. Babcock & Wilcox Asia, a wholly owned subsidiary of B&W PGG, will provide services during boiler installation, commissioning and testing. Unit 1 is scheduled to go online in the fall of 2010, followed by Unit 2 several months later. (alex)