Power plant recovery and optimisation in Mali

Background

USP&E was called in at the end of 2021 to recover a large-scale mining power plant that had been left in critical condition by the previous O&M contractor. The plant comprised 15 CAT CM32 engines and was experiencing frequent breakdowns, high failure rates, and spiralling maintenance costs.

At the point of transfer, USP&E inherited a fleet with significant latent defects, including severe limestone deposits in cooling water systems, corrosion damage to pistons and cylinder heads, turbocharger inefficiencies, contaminated fuel and lube oil systems, and connecting rods found outside allowable tolerances. The previous contractor had used untreated river water in the cooling systems and left incomplete overhauls across multiple engines. The balance of plant had not been addressed, creating mismatched life expectancies across the system.

The site also faced harsh operating conditions: extreme ambient temperatures, dust infiltration, inconsistent fuel and lubricant quality, and limited local availability of spare parts and technical expertise.

The Solution

USP&E conducted a forensic root cause analysis across all 15 engines, documenting the history and condition of each unit. The findings were presented to the client’s executives, identifying the transfer of latent defects and fuel quality issues as the primary contributors to the high failure rate. USP&E implemented a comprehensive turnaround strategy that included complete engine refurbishment and rebuild programmes, turbocharger upgrades and optimisation, spare parts management and procurement, remediation of cooling water and fuel quality systems, workforce training and capability building, and structured preventive maintenance scheduling.

USP&E also supplied and installed three new zero-hour CM32 engines (CM16, CM17, CM18) to expand plant capacity, all of which have operated without latent defects.