Recent Work
The work mentioned below shows the diversity of our capabilities. From being able to completely supply all requirements for a new pharmaceutical factory to installing a category 4 safety system to a robot we strive to provide the best possible service for the client.
Below is a sample of some of the services we are able to perform.
OMATA TANK FARM UP AND RUNNING – Excerpt taken from JLE News Autumn 2010
JLE has recently completed a very successful contract for all the electrical installation work for an extension to the Omata tank farm associated with the Kupe oil and gas field in Taranaki. The tank farm stores light crude trucked in from the Kupe gas processing plant near Hawera. When the tanks are full, the light crude is piped three kilometres to Port Taranaki from where it is shipped to offshore refineries. The extension includes a truck unloading facility that is able to unload two trucks simultaneously, and two condensate storage tanks, each about 30m in diameter and 25m high.
MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF STOCKTON – Excerpt taken from JLE News Autumn 2010
Mechanical construction is largely complete at the new coal handling and processing plant at the Stockton opencast mine near Westport, where a large JLE team has been working long hours the past few months to complete all the electrical and instrumentation work for the new plant. JLE Technical Manager Graeme Clough says the team spent about six months carrying out all the electrical installation work on the two new tanks, including wiring all the motors, lights, control valves, sensors and the fire system. “We’d had previous experience as a sub-contractor at the tank farm for the Pohokura field, also in Taranaki, but it was good to be able to run this project ourselves, with such a great end result.” The tanks are now fully operational and the first shipment of light crude left Port Taranaki in January.
JLE Technical Manager Graeme Clough says power is now on the site and commissioning will take around a month before the plant goes into full production. “There’s still a huge amount of work for our team,” says Graeme. “We’ve carried out the electrical installation all the way from the 11kV supply line into the plant, through the transformers, and installed the switchboards and all the communications, including data and fibre optic cabling, out to the field.” The project offers plenty of challenges, as the site is two and a half thousand feet up a mountain in an area that receives 6000mm of rain annually and has limited vehicle access. This means careful management of people, rosters, transport and logistics. The journey to the site from Westport takes the JLE team about an hour at the beginning and end of each day. “It’s certainly a place of extremes,” says Graeme. “It can be beautiful one day and the next it’s cold, wet and windy. Some days we leave Westport and it’s lovely and sunny, but then we climb up the mountain into the cloud and you can’t see your hand in front of your face for the rest of the day.”
Around 70 JLE staff are on the project, working shifts of 11 days on/2 days off. Graeme says the team enjoy the technical challenge of working on a large industrial installation. “The national streamlining of JLE’s people, systems and procedures meant we were quickly able to pull together a large, skilled team at very short notice for this project, which had an extremely tight deadline,” says Graeme. “But there’s no doubt the really long hours and hard work are paying off and we’re definitely meeting the challenge.”
FOUR STAFF, 15 MONTHS, $1.3 MILLION – Excerpt taken from JLE News Summer 2010
JLE is part of a huge project refurbishing Christchurch City Council office buildings. Contracting to Climatech, who are the mechanical services main contractor, JLE is working on electrical for mechanical. Due to JLE’s proven track record of specialising in mechanical services in Canterbury, it’s no surprise that JLE have been awarded this contract. This project will run for 15 months with completion around mid-2010.
JLE has a team of four full time staff on site for the duration of the project, a number that will undoubtedly increase in the New Year as the workload increases on upper levels. “This is a great project for us to work on because of how long it’s planned to take,” says JLE’s South Island Manager Graeme Findlay. “Work is steady and consistent so we’ve planned around it without affecting resources on any of our other jobs.” The building was formerly Christchurch’s NZ Post Mail Centre – it’s now being transformed into the council’s new office building to house around 1,100 people.
To date JLE’s Electricians have installed over 40km of cabling around the six storeys of the building – and they’re just getting started! “It will be great to get out of the Dungeon which is well below ground where two of the main cable trays are.” says Frank O’Dell, the JLE site foreman. As a ‘Green Star’ eco-friendly building, the majority of the cabling is halogen free and all the materials used for the project are given ‘credit ratings’. Extensive design has also been put into the heating and ventilation control systems to minimize energy waste.
WORLD’S LARGEST MILK POWDER TOWER – Excerpt taken from JLE News Spring 2009
Constructing the world’s largest milk powder tower on Fonterra’s Edendale site was never going to be a project without challenges. As the building services and electrical contractor on this Ebert Construction job, JLE has shown real success where others may have failed. JLE’s staff of 10 has been a fairly minor contingent on this massive project which at times has had over 200 people working on site. Under the leadership of JLE’s site foreman Bruce Anderson the team has installed lighting, general power and building services to Fonterra specifications.
A key achievement for JLE on this project is the demonstration that distance is no issue to successfully managing a large scale project, with project manager Bob Jones based in the JLE Auckland office while site manager Bruce Anderson worked on site. “This demonstrates our ability to effectively lead projects across New Zealand,” says JLE’s Northern Regional Manager Michael Barron. “With capable teams, the use of robust systems and strong supplier networks, anything is achievable.”
The weather has provided a genuine challenge to those working on the site, located half way between Invercargill and Gore. The roof could not be installed prior to fitting plant equipment so the site was completely open to the environment through winter. While it didn’t snow, being exposed to constant rain and freezing temperatures has been disheartening for at times, with potential safety hazards posing another daily challenge. Hostile weather and the complications that working alongside hundreds of other contractors can bring meant JLE staff had to strictly adhere to health and safety practices. JLE prides itself on maintaining stringent health and safety procedures at all times and despite the challenges presented on the Edendale project, JLE’s health and safety record was unblemished.
The milk tower currently under construction is the fourth for Fonterra on their Edendale site. In addition to the huge 56 metre powder tower which has a 30.8 metre by 30.5 metre footprint, there are two other 21 metre high structures. JLE is proud to be working on another Fonterra project and is looking forward to its successful completion in the coming months.
GREYMOUTH PETROLEUM AUTOMATION – Excerpt taken from JLE News Winter 2009
The strength of the JLE Automation team allows the company to deliver full electrical and automation solutions to its customers. By having automation engineers in-house, JLE have a depth of technical support and back-up that ensures projects and maintenance are delivered to a high technical standard. Currently JLE is working as part of Greymouth Petroleum’s Kowhai Project to perform full automation of the Kowhai site. JLE is building a PLC programme from scratch using a standardised ladder logic code. Allen-Bradley ControlLogix PLC’s are being used. “We’ve developed the code specifically for this project,” says Automation Engineer Greg Hirst. “It’s really clever and we hope to use it again in the future.” JLE is also doing the human-machine interface on the operators’ computers, which monitors and displays what is happening on site.
ANYONE FOR CHICKEN? – Excerpt taken from JLE News Autumn 2009
A team from JLE Electrical (Taranaki) is helping ensure there’s plenty of chicken for everyone! Five staff have spent the last two months undertaking the electrical installation for a large chicken shed in Urenui in Taranaki. The shed is owned by Aviagen and provides the parent stock for chicken farms throughout the country. It is one of seven sheds Aviagen operates around New Zealand. JLE Electrical (Taranaki) has been responsible for installing all of the lights, fans and ventilation required to successfully run the chicken business. JLE Project Manager Graeme Clough says the lighting, heating and ventilation for the shed is fully automated and controlled from a computer, which has the ability to ring staff if anything goes wrong. “Everything is controlled right down to the amount of light the chickens receive, and all their food is weighed and automatically distributed at regular intervals, so as you can imagine it’s vital that everything runs smoothly,” says Graeme. “I’ve been extremely pleased with the great work the JLE team has done on the project!”