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AEMO gives SA-NSW interconnector project top priority

A $1.5 billion project to build a high capacity electricity interconnector linking South Australia and New South Wales has been listed as a top priority by interconnector the Australian Energy Market Operator. AEMO has published its Draft 2020 Integrated System Plan (ISP), listing the 330kv SA-NSW transmission line at the top of its Group 1 Priority Projects. The 900km interconnector linking Robertstown in South Australia’s Mid North with Wagga Wagga in central New South Wales is expected to provide grid stability and lower electricity prices in South Australia when completed from 2022. Electricity infrastructure provider ElectraNet is planning the $1.5 billion 800MW National Energy Grid interconnector with its NSW counterpart TransGrid. The project was listed as Group 2 in the previous 2018 Integrated Systems Plan. Other projects given Group 1 priority in the 2020 Draft ISP include upgrades to interconnections linking Queensland with NSW and NSW with Victoria and Increasing inertia and fault current in South Australian transmission networks. South Australian Minister for Energy and Mining Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the project would increase stability and reduce electricity prices for residential and commercial customers. “In essence AEMO has labelled the SA-NSW interconnector a ‘no brainer’ to deliver cheaper, more reliable electricity for South Australian households and businesses,” he said. “South Australia currently only has interconnection with Victoria which puts us at the end of the line and vulnerable to the type system risks that saw the entire state blacked out in 2016.” Modelling released earlier in the year showed that small and medium businesses with significant electricity consumption will save many thousands of dollars each year when the interconnector is energised. The South Australian Government granted the interconnector Major Project Status in June with the NSW Government is declaring it Critical State Significant Infrastructure in August. AEMO describes Group […]

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APCO celebrates sustainable packaging leaders at annual awards ceremony

The Australian businesses leading the way in sustainable packaging design and innovation were recognised at the annual Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation Awards in Melbourne. The Hon Trevor Evans, Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management, joined more than 180 guests to celebrate the achievements of the 18 award-winning organisations, representing a broad range of sectors, including manufacturing, retail, transport, technology, hospitality and pharmaceuticals. The finalists and winners (full list below), were selected based on their performance in sustainable packaging design, recycling initiatives and product stewardship programs to develop sustainable supply chains. Supply chain specialists CHEP took home the coveted Sustainable Packaging Excellence award, in recognition of their dedication to collaboration. In addition to delivering a global reusable packaging model, CHEP works with hundreds of businesses to build and support sustainable supply chains. Other award recipients included BioPak (Outstanding Achievement in Leadership), which in the last year has undertaken a number of impressive sustainability initiatives including the development of compostable packaging for single-use food service items. Also recognised was Panasonic (Outstanding Achievement in Outcomes), which has worked on a range of reductions and material efficiency initiatives including a 57% reduction in overall packaging for its 4K BD Player. This year’s event also featured two new categories – High Performing New Member, which went to Marechal Australia, which has seen 100% of solid waste being recovered. Also newly introduced in 2019 is the APCO Sustainability Champion Award, a category recognising individual achievement. Congratulations to Diarmaid O’Mordha, Quality and Sustainability Manager for Endeavour Drinks, who was awarded this prize in recognition of his commitment to improving packaging sustainability across the wine industry supply chain. As the lead organiser of the Wine Industry Sustainable Packaging Alliance, Diarmaid has led several projects that are driving industry uptake of the 2025 National Packaging Targets and worked […]

Commercial pilot projects fast track green cooling technology

Industrial cooling systems that utilise solar energy, thermal storage, smart technology and non-toxic refrigerants will be trialled at three major commercial sites. South Australian company Glaciem Cooling Technology has received $2 million in Australian government funding through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to demonstrate the technical and economic value of integrating thermal energy storage with renewable energy into Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVAC&R) applications. The trial systems will be installed in South Australia at Pernod Ricard’s Rowland Flat winery in the Barossa Valley and Ceravolo Orchards in the Adelaide Hills, as well as in the Reef HQ Aquarium in Townsville, Queensland. The $4.95 million project will allow Glaciem to field test its Thermal Energy Storage solution in commercial and industrial HVAC&R settings. Glaciem and the University of South Australia have spent a decade developing a low cost thermal energy storage technology to store and discharge energy using a heat transfer process. This occurs at a temperature suited to the specific application using special material. The technology has the added benefit of using natural refrigerants rather than commonly used synthetic refrigerants, such as carbon dioxide, which are harmful to the environment. The air-cooled CO2 refrigeration system has been operating at The Bend Motorsport Park, about 100km southeast of the South Australian capital Adelaide, for about 15 months, providing UniSA and Glaciem with more than a year’s worth of clean data in a commercial setting. Glaciem’s technology also uses an advanced control and forecasting system to optimise the system’s operation based on weather forecasts, electricity price forecasts, and customer demand forecasts to allow the storage system to maximise savings. Glaciem CEO Julian Hudson said the three projects all demonstrated different applications across a variety of industries and would provide valuable data to prove the financial model in the field and drive the cost of […]

Rubrik drives Fenner Dunlop cloud expansion

Australian manufacturing business benefits from Rubrik’s native integration with Microsoft Azure to accelerate its cloud migration objectives Rubrik, the Cloud Data Management company, today announced Fenner Dunlop Australia gained 91 days of added productivity by moving to the Rubrik platform, with those resources to be invested in its cloud expansion strategy and other value-add projects. Rubrik’s seamless integration with Microsoft Azure for long-term retention has allowed Fenner Dunlop to eliminate tape, leading to significant cost savings and operational simplicity. Headquartered in Melbourne, Fenner Dunlop manufactures and supplies a complete conveyor system from head-to-tail: belt, electrics and terminal equipment. With more than 30 sites in Australia, the company delivers engineered conveyor solutions to evolve the way mining companies approach their conveyor belt life cycles, saving costs, and increasing productivity. “As a company, everything we do is supported by information systems—manufacturing, technical support, installation, maintenance, diagnostics services, you name it,” said Sammy Jammal, National IT Manager at Fenner Dunlop Australia. “If the system is down for even 10 minutes, the whole operation would come to a halt. This not only has financial implications but is detrimental to our brand reputation and diminishes our customers’ confidence. As an IT team, we want to leverage technology that can help optimise our processes, allowing us to focus on enabling our users and thereby benefiting our customers,” said Jammal. Jammal oversees an IT team of six which supports over 900 employees nationwide, including the core applications – spanning finance, payroll, time and attendance, paperless office and workflow automation systems – which employees need to perform their roles. Prior to Rubrik, Fenner Dunlop struggled with its tape-based legacy backup and disaster recovery solution’s slow performance and time-consuming upgrades. “Our previous solution was extremely unreliable,” said Jammal. “We didn’t know if backups would take four hours, 20 hours, […]

Rio Tinto approves $749 million investment in Pilbara iron ore mine

Rio Tinto has approved a $749 million (A$1 billion) investment in its existing Greater Tom Price operations (100% owned) to help sustain the production capacity of its world-class iron ore business in the Pilbara of Western Australia. The investment in the Western Turner Syncline Phase 2 (WTS2) mine will facilitate mining of existing and new deposits and includes construction of a new crusher as well as a 13-kilometre conveyor. The new conveyor system will help lower greenhouse gas emissions from the mine by 3.5 per cent compared to road haulage and the business is continuing to assess additional options to reduce emissions including renewable energy solutions. Pending final government approvals, construction will start in the first quarter of 2020 with first ore from the crusher expected in 2021. Production of high-quality Brockman ore will support the company’s flagship Pilbara Blend, which continues to be the preferred baseload product for China’s steel mills. The project is expected to deliver an attractive internal rate of return with a capital intensity of about $25 per tonne of production capacity. The investment is included in Rio Tinto’s existing guidance for Pilbara replacement capital for 2020 to 2022. As part of the investment, the haul truck fleet at the mine will be fitted with Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) technology to enable autonomous haulage at WTS2 from 2021. The ongoing deployment of autonomous haulage at the company’s Pilbara operations is delivering significant safety benefits as well as enhancing productivity and reducing costs. Approximately 50% of the company’s haul truck fleet will be capable of operating autonomously by the end of the year with plans being assessed to expand this in the years ahead. Consistent with its proven track record, the company is continuing to reskill, redeploy and retrain as automation technology is implemented. Rio Tinto Iron […]

Enough ambition (and hydrogen) could get Australia to 200% renewable energy

Scott HamiltonStrategic Advisory Panel Member, Australian-German Energy Transition Hub, University of Melbourne Changlong WangResearcher, The Energy Transition Hub, University of Melbourne Falko UeckerdtPotsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Roger DargavilleSenior lecturer, Monash University The possibilities presented by hydrogen are the subject of excited discussion across the world – and across Australia’s political divide, notoriously at war over energy policy. On Friday Australia’s chief scientist Alan Finkel will present a national strategy on hydrogen to state, territory and federal energy ministers. Finkel is expected to outline a plan that prioritises hydrogen exports as a profitable way to reduce emissions. It is to be hoped the strategy is aggressive, rather than timid. Ambition is key in lowering the cost of energy. Australia would do better aiming for 200% renewable energy or more. It’s likely the national strategy will feature demonstration projects to test the feasibility of new technology, reduce costs, and find ways to share the risk of infrastructure investment between government and industry. There are still a number of barriers. Existing gas pipelines could be used to transport hydrogen to end-users but current laws are prohibitive, mechanisms like “certificates of origin” are required, and there are still key technology issues, particularly the cost of electrolysis. These issues raise questions of what a major hydrogen economy really looks like. It may prompt suspicions this is just the a latest energy pipe dream. But our research at the Australian-German Energy Transition Hub argues that an ambitious approach is better than a cautious one. Aggressively pursing hydrogen exports will reduce costs of domestic energy supply and provide a basis for new export industries, such as greens steel, in a carbon-constrained world. Optimal systems cost less We used optimisation modelling to examine how a major hydrogen industry might roll out in Australia. We wanted to identify where major plants […]

Siemens expands additive manufacturing portfolio through acquisition of Atlas 3D

Atlas 3D helps designers define optimal part orientations for ‘right first time’ 3D printing Cloud-based, GPU-accelerated Sunata software can reduce downstream 3D printing errors caused by thermal distortion up to one hundred times faster than other solutions on the market Siemens announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire Atlas 3D, Inc., a Plymouth, Indiana-based developer of software that works with direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) printers to automatically provide design engineers with the optimal print orientation and requisite support structures for additive parts in near real-time. Atlas 3D will join Siemens Digital Industries Software, where its solutions will expand additive manufacturing capabilities in the Xcelerator portfolio of software. Sunata software uses thermal distortion analysis to provide a simple, automated way to optimize part build orientation and generate support structures. This approach allows the designer—rather than the analyst—to perform these simulations, thereby reducing the downstream analysis that needs to be conducted via Simcenter software to achieve a part that meets design requirements. Siemens plans to make the Atlas 3D solution available through its online Additive Manufacturing Network. “We welcome Atlas 3D to the Siemens community as the newest member of our additive manufacturing team. Our solutions industrialize additive manufacturing for large enterprises, 3D printing service bureaus, design firms and CAD designers,” said Zvi Feuer, Senior Vice President, Manufacturing Engineering Software of Siemens Digital Industries Software. “The cloud-based Sunata software makes it easy for designers to determine the optimal way to 3D print parts for high quality and repeatability. The combination of Sunata with the robust CAE additive manufacturing tools in Simcenter enables a ‘right first time’ approach for industrial 3D printing.” “Siemens is a leader in additive manufacturing, with the most integrated and functionally robust solutions in the industry, so we are excited to join the team,” said […]

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HSV aims for growth through digitalisation collaboration with Siemens and AMGC

The Hon Karen Andrews, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, announces hi-tech software collaboration at HSV HSV, Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre and Siemens will collaborate to enable advanced manufacturing at the Clayton automotive high-performance vehicle facility Digital manufacturing environment to deliver at least 20% increase in performance as HSV aims to expand production lines and tap into export opportunities The Hon Karen Andrews, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, today visited the automotive production line at the HSV facility in Clayton (Victoria) to announce a hi-tech software collaboration to help HSV expand production lines and tap into global exports of their performance vehicles. The software collaboration brings together HSV, the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) and technology powerhouse Siemens – the largest automation and industrial software company in the world. “What’s so exciting about this announcement is that it demonstrates the benefits of going digital in all types of industries. By increasing the digitalisation of HSV’s manufacturing process, they expect at least a 20% increase in performance,” said Minister Andrews. “This will in turn create more demand for the local supply chain.” “Embracing digital technology allows Australian manufacturers to compete on value, not on cost, which is so important to their ongoing success and will allow them to grow and create new local jobs,” Minister Andrews said. Also present at the announcement were Tim Jackson, CEO of HSV, Jeff Connolly, Chairman and CEO of Siemens Australia Pacific and Dr. Jens Goennemann, Managing Director of AMGC. Tim said that the introduction of digital processes will significantly help the teams and support their growing business. “Right now we have around 350 people, with one of our lines operating 24 hours a day (three shifts) to keep up with demand. The re-manufacturing process requires significantly more work to the vehicles than when […]

Australian-first qualification in automation receives accreditation

Current and future workers in the resources industry will be able to gain formal qualifications in remote operations for the first time following a partnership between Rio Tinto, the Western Australian Government and South Metropolitan TAFE. A Certificate IV in Autonomous Control and Remote Operations has now been approved by the Training Accreditation Council (WA), providing students with the knowledge and skills needed to work at facilities such as Rio Tinto’s Remote Operations Centre in Perth. The course is the highest-level accreditation approved to date in a partnership struck between Rio Tinto, the Western Australia Government and South Metropolitan TAFE in 2017. It follows accreditation earlier this year of a Certificate II in Autonomous Workplace Operations and a micro-credential course for trade-qualified, apprentices and technicians. About 30 Rio Tinto employees will take part in the initial pilot of the Certificate IV course which will be delivered by South Metropolitan TAFE in 2020. The course work combines work integrated learning giving our participants the opportunity to apply the new learning and knowledge to work related scenarios in the Control Centre. Pending successful completion of the pilot, the first Certificate IV course may start in 2021. Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Chris Salisbury said “The key to any technology is our people and that’s why training and development is so important. These qualifications will provide employees, both current and future, with the skills and training needed to thrive in our evolving industry. “These courses give Western Australian workers the opportunity to gain modern, portable qualifications, with skills that can be used right across the resources industry. “Rio Tinto has committed A$2 million to the development of these qualifications which come at a critical time for the industry as we look to ensure vocational education and training programmes keep pace with the […]

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Hydraulink group opens Newman branch in response to Pilbara growth

The 24/7 Hydraulink Newman operation in Pardoo St, Newman Light Industrial Area Leading multinational hydraulic hose, fittings and solutions company Hydraulink has opened a new facility in Newman, WA, to service strong and ongoing mining, construction and commercial and industrial infrastructure development in the Pilbara. The new franchise – the latest of more than 240 hydraulic hose service points throughout Australia – is led by Mr Kevin Ormond, an award-winning family businessman who has forged strong engineering and service links with leading companies throughout Western Australia over more than a decade, including some of the State’s largest miners. “We saw a strong place in the market for a service-oriented hydraulic solutions provider with the local facilities to ensure customer equipment uptime is optimised and costly equipment is back in service rapidly,” said Mr Ormond, whose experience includes on-site and FIFO engineering and technical work on WA mine sites, before also developing a strong and ongoing manufacturing and export business to Pilbara companies from his family’s engineering company in New Zealand. Hydraulink – which operates under the market signature “Best Under Pressure” – has awarded Ormond Engineering multiple achievement awards over successive years and is delighted to have to have Mr Ormond’s highly motivated team join its expanding network, says Hydraulink WA State Manager, Mr Andrew Lever. “It is outstanding to have Kevin as a team leader who knows thoroughly the needs of WA industry – including prompt and thorough service to optimise reliability and expedite maintenance and repairs, with all work performed to the same uniformly high standards over multiple sites. As someone with long experience in the unique conditions of WA industry, he is strongly aware of the mandatory safety, compliance and traceability performance required in world-class businesses,” he said. The new branch some 1,250km north of Perth will […]

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