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Smart Grid T&D Dist Gen Business Policy & Reg Home | More Coal Fired Industry News | Manjung 4: An ultra-supercritical first in Southeast Asia Power Engineering International Welcome to the online version of our Power Engineering International (Pei) print publication. This is where to find archive magazine articles as well as our present edition. For any feedback on the content contact us here or discuss on PEi LinkedIn Group Manjung 4: An ultra-supercritical first in Southeast Asia 01/09/2012 8 Twitter 5

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With the 1000 MW Manjung 4 project on schedule, Malaysia looks set to be the first country in Southeast Asia to not only boast an ultra-supercritical power station, but one where both the boiler and the steam turbine are being manufactured in Asia. The Manjung 4 power station, which is now under construction in Malaysia, is expected to be the first ultra-supercritical power plant in Southeast Asia when it is completed in 2015. The 1000 MW coal fired station is being constructed under a turnkey contract by a consortium led by the original equipment manufacturer Alstom, in partnership with China

Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC). The contract was signed with TNB Janamanjung Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Bhd, the large state-owned utility. According to Alstom, the total contract is worth around 1 billion ($1.2 billion), of which its share is 650 million. Manjung 4 will be built on the same site as an existing power station, the three-unit, 2100 MW Manjung power plant, which was also constructed by Alstom and began delivering power in 2003. Located in the Manjung municipality the plant is built on a reclaimed island off the western coast of the state of Perak, around 10 km south of Lumut and 288 km north of Kuala Lumpur. The island is also home to the Lekir coal terminal, where coal to power the existing Manjung plant is imported. This terminal will also supply the fuel for Manjung 4. Alstom already has a strong presence in Malaysia, as a result of Manjung and other power plants it has built there, and this allowed the contract for Manjung 4 to be finalised extremely quickly. From the submission of bids in December 2010 to acceptance and signing in March 2011, the process was proof of TNB's requirement for additional capacity to meet rising demand and at the same as time reduce its dependence on natural gas, which has become the most important source of power in Malaysia. An evolving generation mix The Malaysian government has for several years maintained a five-fuel policy for power generation in order to avoid excessive reliance on a single fuel. In spite of this, its generation mix is dominated by fossil fuels with gas taking 45 per cent of the total generation in 2011 and coal 44 per cent (see Table 1). Together with oil and distillates,

these accounted for more than 94 per cent of all power generation. Only hydropower, with 5.8 per cent of the total in 2011, provided any alternative, with the contribution from other renewable energy sources less than 1 per cent.

Table 1, which contains these figures, also shows the breakdown for 2010. The main difference between the two years is the sharp fall in the share of generation taken by natural gas - 54 per cent in 2010, which is nine percentage points higher than in 2011 and a rise in the contribution from other fossil fuels. The fall in the contribution from natural gas was the result of tightening supplies, reinforcing the need for Malaysia to expand its generating capacity from other sources to avoid power supplies coming under pressure. Natural gas for power generation in Malaysia is provided by the national gas company Petronas. Production from the company's fields has been declining since 2006 and recently gas for the power sector has been curtailed, as a result Petronas says of maintenance and upgrading of offshore facilities. The unscheduled reduction in the use of gas in 2011 prefigures a planned fall in the proportion of power generated from natural gas in the future (see Table 1). By 2020, its

share of generation is scheduled to fall to 47.8 per cent and by 2030 to 41 per cent. Meanwhile coal use will rise to over 48 per cent of the total by 2020, based on recently published figures. Beyond that, nuclear power is also planned to take a share of the mix, with coal's proportion then falling. However as the 2011 mix suggests natural gas curtailment may be forcing the shift to other fuels more quickly than has been planned. The government is also trying to promote alternative types of renewable generation including solar photovoltaics and biomass, but over the short term the main alternative to gas remains coal. However Malaysia has no coal reserves of its own so all the coal it uses, 20 million tonnes each year according to TNB in its 2011 annual report, is imported. This means that costs depend on the market price for coal, which almost tripled between 2004 and 2011, from $34/tonne to $107/tonne. Prices, however, have been falling since May 2011, which has eased the situation slightly. Meanwhile demand in Malaysia is rising steadily as the economy grows. GDP growth in 2010 was 7.1 per cent and 5.1 per cent in 2011, following a contraction of 1.6 per cent in 2009. Its estimated growth in 2012 is forecast to be 4.4 per cent, according to Global Finance, still strong in spite of global economic difficulties. Table 2 shows peak electricity demand between 2005 and 2011 in Peninsular Malaysia. As these figures demonstrate, demand has risen throughout this period. The peak in 2011 (15,476 MW) represented a 2.7 per cent increase over 2010.

Although margins in Malaysia appear generous - installed capacity in Peninsular Malaysia in 2011 was 21,794 MW - this depends upon the availability of fuel, as TNB found out early in 2011 when it had to import power from Singapore when gas supplies were restricted. Meanwhile the continuous upward trend in demand, in spite of the global economic recession, means that additional capacity is needed if adequate margins are to be maintained under all circumstances. With pressure on the gas supplies and gas prices remaining uncertain, the government has opted to invest in further coal fired generation. Manjung 4, with its ultra-supercritical boiler is a sign of this. Coal capacity will expand further with the more recently contracted Tanjung Bin power plant, an ultra-supercritical coal fired power station. This second 1000 MW facility will also be supplied by Alstom in partnership with Mudajaya

and Shin Eversendai under a contract with a subsidiary of Malakoff Corporation Bhd. The Tanjung Bin power station is due to enter service in 2016, one year after Manjung 4. Background to Manjung 4 project The Alstom consortium's client in the Manjung 4 project is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TNB, the state-owned utility and largest electricity company in the country, with generation, transmission and distribution arms serving Peninsular Malaysia. TNB's generation division operated a capacity of 9110 MW in 2011, comprising 7199 MW of thermal power and 1911 MW of hydropower. This represented 41.8 per cent of the total installed capacity in the peninsula (21,794 MW). TNB is also the major shareholder (60 per cent) in Kapar Energy Ventures Bhd, which operates the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz power station. This plant, with a mixture of thermal steam and gas turbine units, is responsible for a further 2420 MW of capacity.

General view of Manjung 4 under construction: boiler steel structure in

progress; and turbine hall foundation in the foreground, future coal yard on the left of the picture and ash pond on the right source: Alstom In recent years, TNB's output has been affected by the tight gas supply in Malaysia. Curtailment by Petronas led to a reduction in natural gas' share of generation in 2011 to 47.5 per cent of the company's total generation capacity - down from 53.1 per cent in 2010. Meanwhile TNB's overall share of generation in 2011 fell to 38 per cent from 42 per cent in 2010 because of a series of unplanned outages. Total generation by TNB in the 2010-11 financial year was 37,859 GWh. Most of this electricity was generated at three power plants: Manjung (12,334 GWh), Tuanku Ja'afar, Port Dickson (7979 GWh) and the Sultan Ismail, Paka (5183 GWh). The Manjung power station is owned by TNB Janamanjung. The company was established back in 1996 to develop a 2100 MW coal fired power plant on the island at Manjung. An engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for that project was awarded to a consortium comprising Alstom and Peremba Construction Bhd, a local company. This power station was also built in order to reduce the dependence on natural gas, and a coastal site, the reclaimed island called Teluk Penchalang, was chosen in order to allow easy access for imported coal. The same company, TNB Janamanjung, is the client for the new ultra-supercritical Manjung 4 plant.

Manjung 4 boiler construction in progress seen from the bunker bay side: eight coal pulverizers on the left; air ducts (dark red colour) are installed in parallel to the steel structure progress source: Alstom On 23 August 2010, the Malaysian government awarded TNB the contact to build a 1000 MW coal fired power plant. After an extremely short bidding process, with bids submitted in December 2010, the EPC contract for the Manjung 4 project was awarded

by TNB Janamanjung to the consortium of Alstom and CMC. Site work began on 29 June 2011, with commercial operation scheduled to begin on 31 March 2015. From Alstom's perspective, the tendering process proceeded very rapidly and the contract was signed without any pre-engineering so that the project team had to be established immediately. That team is now actively building the plant, where boiler construction began in April 2012, only 12 months after the Notice to Proceed. Alstom has a strong relationship with TNB, having supplied a large part of the company's fossil fuel generating capacity and this was a major factor that allowed both sides to move quickly, and with confidence, according to Jean-Marc Jaillet, project director for the Manjung 4 steam power plant. Other participants in the project will include Tokyo Electric Power Service Company, which will act as Owner's Engineer for TNB. Under the terms of the contact, Alstom will engineer, procure, construct and commission the ultra-supercritical boiler for the plant (including its associated auxiliary components), the steam turbine and generator, the condenser, a fabric filter, a seawater flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) system and the plant control system. All the civil works for the project will be subcontracted by CMC. These include the air intakes and the offshore cooling water channel and tunnel, which will be used both for the condenser and for the FGD system. One of the striking features of the Manjung 4 project is that much of the equipment, which Alstom will supply, will come from Alstom manufacturing facilities across Asia, including China, India, as well as from Malaysia itself. This is a response to the way in which the power generation market has shifted in recent years.

According to Robert Gleitz, vice president Product/Platform Management Steam at Alstom, around 60-65 GW of coal fired steam capacity is ordered every year globally. Of this, 70 per cent is in Asia with the main markets located in China, India and Southeast Asia. Thus, with Asia driving the market so strongly, it makes sense for companies like Alstom to increasingly base its own manufacturing within the region, both from an economic viewpoint and to help meet the demand in some countries in the region for locally manufactured input. Ultra-supercritical first The outstanding feature of the Manjung 4 power plant will be its ultra-supercritical boiler, said to be the first of its type to be built in Southeast Asia and an important development for improving overall energy efficiency in the region. The key to greater energy efficiency in a steam power plant is more advanced steam conditions. The higher the temperature and pressure at which the steam is produced by the boiler, the greater the potential efficiency of thermal to electricity conversion in the steam turbine/generator portion of the plant. In a supercritical plant, steam pressure is maintained above the critical point of water, which occurs at 221.2 bar, 374 C. Beyond this critical point, the two-phase mixture of water and steam found in more conventional power plant boilers ceases to exist. Instead the fluid enters a new 'supercritical' state. As a consequence, the conversion from water to steam occurs entirely within the evaporator circuits and there is no need for a boiler drum, necessary in a conventional subcritical plant.

Higher temperatures and pressures however place greater demands on pressure part materials, and as a consequence many new materials have been developed for boilers. The most advanced supercritical plants today are capable of achieving an efficiency of between 40 per cent and 45 per cent (HHV basis), but actual performance depends on specific site conditions, such as cooling water temperature, hence condenser performance. Another important parameter is coal quality. Globally, the quality of available coal is tending to fall as the best coals are exhausted. Modern high-capacity steam plants must now be able to cope with a wider range of coals than has traditionally been the case. With these limitations in mind, the new plant at Manjung 4 is being specified with an efficiency of close to 40 per cent, according to TNB. This is nearly five percentage points higher than the existing three subcritical units at Manjung, which operate at 35 per cent efficiency. While this is not the highest efficiency attainable by such a plant, it represents the optimum that can be achieved with the site conditions and with the plant's ability to burn a wide range of coals of varying quality. Even so, an increase of five percentage points is an extremely significant advance. It will result in a reduction in operating costs because each tonne of coal will generate close to 14 per cent more power than in the existing subcritical Manjung power plant. Furthermore, emissions will fall similarly, with nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide (CO2) and particulates all lower. And since a supercritical plant costs only slightly more to build as a subcritical plant of a similar size, Alstom says, unit cost will be competitive as well.

State-of-the-art boiler The boiler chosen for the Manjung 4 plant is a vertical tube furnace wall, two-fireball, two pass design equipped with Alstom's LNTFS firing system. The main technical data for the unit are shown in Table 3. With a main steam flow of 3226 tonnes/hour (t/h) at 282 bar and 600 C, the unit is classified as an ultra-supercritical design, considered the state-of-the-art today.

The boiler for Manjung 4 is Alstom's latest once-through, sliding pressure design and builds on more than 50 years of supercritical development. The new vertical tube design incorporates two important features to allow sliding pressure operation. The first is rifled tubing, which spins the water/steam mixture travelling within the tubes, throwing the water onto the tube surface to aid cooling. The second is the use of orifices to distribute fluid flow to the furnace wall tubes in proportion to tube heat absorption. Tubes in the centre of the wall receive more heat and require more cooling, so proper fluid distribution reduces temperature differentials and consequently the stress within the furnace wall.

Erection assembly of coal pulveriser source: Alstom The vertical tube design is suited to larger units such as that at Manjung 4 and the selfsupporting tubes and the relative simplicity of the design make for a lower construction cost. In addition, the design makes leaks easier to identify and repair and so reduces maintenance costs. The additional choice of a two-pass rather than a tower boiler allows for a shorter overall design. Sliding-pressure operation provides flexibility during daily load swings by allowing the plant to operate more efficiently at part load. The sliding-pressure mode reduces the boiler pressure as load falls, minimizing throttle valve energy losses and therefore helps

maintain high steam temperature to the turbine. This also reduces thermal stress during cycling, lowering maintenance and improving availability. The firing system in the boiler is Alstom's low-NOx tangential or corner-firing system. Tangential firing systems inject fuel and air streams from wind boxes in the furnace corners at a tangent to an imaginary circle in the centre of the furnace. In Manjung 4, rather than a single firing circle, two adjacent firing circles are utilised, creating two fireballs. Fuel and air nozzles have tilt capability to control the reheat temperature without spray desuperheat, improving efficiency. The main windbox consists of eight coal nozzles containing enhanced ignition coal tips. Between the coal nozzles are concentric firing system (CFS) air nozzles and auxiliary nozzles. The CFS nozzles have yaw capability, allowing them to move air closer to the furnace walls for slagging and corrosion control. Four of the auxiliary nozzles contain No.2 fuel oil burners to provide the required oil fired warm up capacity, and are situated such that the coal nozzles can be brought into service in any desired order or combination. High-energy arc ignitors are also located next to each oil burner. A separated overfire air (SOFA) windbox is located above the main windbox to optimize air staging and minimize NOx emissions. Each SOFA windbox contains six separate air nozzles. The SOFA nozzles are both vertically and horizontally adjustable. In combination, this combustion system allows for the adjustment of fuel and air conditions to suit different types of coal, maximising combustion efficiency while maintaining low emissions, particularly of NOx. The system results in stable fireballs in

the centre of the boiler over the entire operating range, leading to more predictable heat absorption profiles, Alstom says. As shown in Table 3, the unit provides a main steam flow of 3226 t/h at an outlet pressure to the turbine of 282.4 bar and a steam temperature of 600 C. Reheat steam flow is 2687 t/h at 60.6 bar and 605 C. Meanwhile, feedwater to the boiler has a temperature of 304 C. The boiler pressure parts for the plant will be manufactured in Alstom's new Chinese manufacturing facility in the Wuhan East Lake Development Zone. Alstom acquired a 51 per cent stake in the Wuhan Boiler Company in 2007 and moved to the new site at the end of 2009. The new manufacturing facility is capable of making a range of boilers using Alstom technology, but the Manjung 4 unit will be the first large-scale boiler to be manufactured there. One of the most important design considerations for any new coal fired boiler today is the quality of the coal. As mentioned above, the best quality coals are becoming more and more difficult to acquire so new plants must be able to handle fuel with a lower heating content, a higher moisture content and a higher ash content than would have been common several years ago. The Manjung 4 boiler has been designed to be capable of burning a broad range of bituminous and sub-bituminous coals from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa. The existing Manjung units are currently burning coal imported primarily from Kalimantan, Indonesia, TNB Janamanjung chief operating officer/general manager Shamsul Ahmad

said recently, but sources will vary depending upon market conditions. Manjung 4 will share coal with Manjung's already existing three units. Table 4 shows the design parameters for the coal fuelling Manjung 4 together with the range of acceptable coals it can burn. The design gross calorific value is 5200 kcal/kg but the power plant will be capable of burning coals with calorific values ranging from 4500 kcal/kg to 6600 kcal/kg.

The design target moisture content is 22 per cent, but again coals with moisture contents ranging from 8 per cent to 30 per cent can be burned. An ash content of 1.6 per cent is the design specification, but a content of between 1.5 per cent and 13.9 per cent is again acceptable. For sulphur content, the design composition is 0.47 per cent but any coal within the range 0.10-0.94 per cent will be suitable. The design fixed carbon percentage is 41.34 per cent and the design volatile matter composition is 35 per cent, but coals with a fixed carbon content of 35.28-54.07 per cent can be accommodated, as can a volatile matter composition of 24 per cent to 43 per cent.

These broad ranges will allow for a wide variety of coals to be combusted at Manjung 4, permitting the operator to obtain coal of the specified types from the most competitively priced source. Coal for Manjung 4 will be supplied through the existing coal terminal constructed on the island that serves the first three units built there. The Manjung 4 unit will be provided with eight gravimetric raw coal feeders and eight Alstom HP 1023 pulverisers. This HP 1023 mill is of a latest design and includes dynamic classifiers and enlarged grinding rolls. Individual mill capacity has been designed so that full boiler load can be maintained even if one mill is out of service. Advanced steam turbine The steam turbine for the new plant will be a 1080 MW-rated STF100 unit equipped with one high-pressure turbine, one intermediate-pressure turbine and two double-flow, lowpressure turbines. Steam conditions, as noted in Table 3, include a high-pressure steam turbine inlet temperature of 270 bar, a steam inlet temperature of 595 C and a steam flow from the boiler of 3226 t/h. Reheat steam flow will be 2687 t/h at a temperature of 603.5 C. The inlet temperature of steam exiting the steam turbine for the reheater is 364 C and the condenser vacuum is 75 mbar. As with the boiler, fabrication of the steam turbine will take place in China at the Alstom Beizhong Power (Beijing) Company Limited. Like its Wuhan facility, Alstom purchased the facility and has equipped it to be able to manufacture advanced turbines of different types.

While the Beijing manufacturing plant is designed to serve the large Chinese market it will also fabricate units to be delivered to other parts of the world, including Malaysia. However, many of the components are manufactured in other parts of the world and then shipped to the Beijing plant for assembly. For example, the rotor for the Manjung 4 turbine will be made in Switzerland and the casings in Poland, while other parts will be manufactured in Mexico. The condenser is based on a double condenser arrangement and will be manufactured in Taiwan under sub-contract. As with the existing units at the site, Manjung 4's condenser will utilise seawater cooling, ideal given the island location of the power plant. Water for the plant will be brought onshore to a pumping station via a seabed channel linked to an intake 1.7 km offshore. This water is used for cooling of the plant; about 20 per cent of the cooling water is used for the seawater FGD system, before it is then discharged to the sea. In addition to the main steam turbine, Manjung 4 will also be equipped with a small steam turbine to drive its two feedwater pumps. This steam turbine will be manufactured by Alstom Germany, which is based in Mannheim. Flexible design of generator The generator for the plant will be an Alstom GIGATOP two-pole unit with a generating capacity of 1000 MW. Based on the evolution of a well proven design first developed during the 1970s, the unit will have a water-cooled stator winding, while both the stator core and the rotor will be hydrogen-cooled.

The cooling system is designed to enable the machine to maintain high-efficiency at part load as well as full load. Water cooling is carried out by passing deionized water through stainless steel tubes in order to avoid any corrosion problems. Meanwhile hydrogen cooling is conducted using a triple-circuit hydrogen sealing system to minimise losses, and hence operating costs. The stator core is designed to be maintenance-free for the lifetime of the unit. Complete flue gas treatment One of the novel features of Manjung 4, and one that it shares with the previous Manjung units, is the use of seawater flue gas desulphurisation. However the design of the unit has been refined since the earlier installation. The new FGD system is also larger. As you would expect, seawater FGD use seawater itself as the absorbent. Seawater is naturally slightly alkaline and will absorb and react with SO2, converting it in the presence of oxygen from the air, into soluble sulphate, which remains dissolved in the seawater. Absorption takes place in a packed-tower counterflow absorber into which is fed around 20 per cent of the seawater drawn into the plant from the seawater intake system. The process is capable of absorbing above 90 per cent of the SO2, depending on input levels.

The FGD system utilises treated seawater as the absorder and has been designed to treat the full flue gas stream source: Alstom Once the seawater exits the absorber tower it is sent to a seawater treatment plant where it is mixed with the cooling water exiting the condenser, and treated with ambient air to increase the dissolved oxygen level. The treated water is then returned to the sea. Passage through the FGD system leads to a slight increase in the sulphate load of the seawater, of about 55 mg/l. The pH of the seawater is also lowered, from around 7-8 at the intake to 6-7 when it is returned to the sea. These changes, however, satisfy even very stringent environmental standards, with the process generating no by-products. Seawater FGD has both low lifetime and maintenance costs, Alstom says. Meanwhile, the flue gas

exiting the FGD plant is reheated in order to rise high into the air and disperse after leaving the stack. Reheating of the flue gas is done via the gas-gas heater (GGH) with the heat that was extracted from the flue gas before the absorber. The performance specification for the system at Manjung 4 is detailed in Table 5. Sulphur dioxide emission levels are guaranteed at below 200 mg/Nm3, which is significantly lower than the current World Bank standard of 500 mg/Nm3.

Other emission levels are also presented in Table 5. Based on specified performance, NOx emissions will be below 500 mg/Nm3, while carbon monoxide (CO) emissions are less than 200 mg/Nm3. Manjung 4's FGD system has been designed to treat the complete flue gas stream exiting the plant. This represents a significant advancement compared to the three units of the Manjung power station, where the seawater FGD system was designed to treat up to 65 per cent of the gases exiting the boiler.

Large-scale, versatile PM filtration In addition to low-NOx burners and seawater FGD for emission control, Manjung 4 will also be equipped with a fabric filtration system to control emissions of particulate matter (PM), and will be located upstream of the seawater FGD unit. The three 700 MW units already operating at Manjung all have electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) and so the choice of a fabric filter instead of an ESP may seem unusual but as with many other features of Manjung 4, it is dictated by the available fuel. An ESP will often offer the optimum particulate removal system provided the fuel specification is tight, but when a plant must, like Manjung 4, be able to operate with a range of different coals then a fabric filter is considered more reliable and can maintain performance, irrespective of the coal type and source.

The fabric filtration system is an important component in providing

Manjung 4 with the flexibility of burning a wide range of coal qualities source: Alstom For Manjung 4, Alstom will be installing its first 1000 MW fabric filter. The unit will use the company's Optipulse pulse-jet fabric filter system. This system comprises a large number of individual filter bags supported on wire cages, and the complete filter is divided into a series of compartments that can each be isolated using dampers at the inlets and outlets. The flue gas enters the individual bags from the outside and then exits from the top of the interior of the bag. Meanwhile, the filtered particulates are deposited gravimetrically into hoppers below the bags. Cleaning of the bags is by a pulse of compressed air, which inflates the bag sharply to it extreme limit, dislodging dust from the exterior which is then collected in the hoppers. Ash from the fabric filter at Manjung 4 will be exported from the site for reuse at a local cement plant. Joint effort with I&C and BOP Alstom's P320, two-channel redundant control system, which is routinely fitted to its steam turbine plants, will be installed at Manjung 4. Although the basic design for this system was carried out in France, the hardwiring and testing will be conducted by Alstom

Malaysia. The electrical system was designed by Alstom's Paris office with the help of Alstom Beijing, and supply will be divided between China and Malaysia. Meanwhile the supply of balance of plant (BOP) for the turbine hall will be divided between Alstom France and Alstom Beijing. The project represents the first time that Alstom Beijing has been responsible for the supply and management of BOP and is a clearly a sign that the Chinese operation is of importance for the access to the Asian market. Indeed, the whole project demonstrates how the design and supply situation has changed since the construction of the three units at Manjung. These units were constructed mostly using European and US components, but for Manjung 4, a high percentage of the plant will be built with components manufactured in Alstom factories in China or sourced in the Asian market using Alstom's extensive base in China. CMC coordinates civil works The Chinese input continues with the civil works, which are being subcontracted through the CMC. The Chinese consortium partner's responsibilities include the seawater intake, which comprises a 1.7 km square-section underwater channel that will lie on the seabed and bring seawater from the intake to an onshore pumping station for delivery to the condenser and seawater FGD system. The stack is also part of CMC's responsibility. It will be a 200-metre-high flue constructed from slip-form concrete. Manjung 4's ash management will include collection and exporting of the fabric filter fly ash, while the bottom ash from the boiler will be spread in an existing ash lagoon on the island. Shift from West to East

Work on the Manjung 4 project is well underway, and most importantly is on schedule to be ready to enter commercial operation on 31 March 2015. The project will be unique as Southeast Asia's first ultra-supercritical coal fired power plant and as a testament to the global shift towards higher efficiency, lower emissions coal fired power generation to both reduce costs and help to combat climate change. The project is also a testament to the shift in the economic balance between the developed and the developing worlds. Within the power generation industry, at least, Asia is now one of the most important marketplaces but it is no longer either politically or economically feasible to supply sophisticated power plant technology to the region manufactured exclusively either in Europe or the US. Countries in the region now demand a greater share of both the technological expertise and the manufacturing capability. As Alstom is showing with this project, the key to success in this changing climate is to shift manufacturing closer to market, and Manjung 4 is providing a vivid example of this strategy in operation.