In 2007, a consortium comprising Singapore Power and Babcock & Brown purchased the Alinta asset management business. Babcock & Brown retained the ‘Alinta’ brand, which continues today in Western Australia, whereas Singapore Power retained the assets and asset management business on the east coast – formerly Alinta East.

This meant Singapore Power had to rebrand its assets and businesses, which is how Jemena was born.

The name John van Weel explains that Jemena is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘to hear, listen and think’. “It was chosen because it represents how the company does business and because our focus is on delivering the best possible service to all our customers. To provide innovation, creative and cost-effective solutions for our customers, we need to hear, listen and think. “Our tagline – ‘Vital services. Vital planet’ – reflects the vital services we provide to millions of Australians and our commitment to do everything we can do to minimise our impact on our environment,” he says.

The focus

Over the past twelve months, Mr van Weel says that Jemena has focused on delivering on the expectations of all of its customers by maintaining and operating its assets to a very high level.

“This experience and overall capability has allowed us to expand our service delivery and asset development business across Australia winning new contracts in gas, electricity and water. We have acquired three service businesses in the past year, which have added considerable expertise in electricity, water and waste water services.”

Mr van Weel says that while Jemena’s business has always been known for its expertise in the gas and electricity industries, the company is setting out to prove that it has a growing capability in the water sector, with a vision to be a leader in infrastructure management development.

The new logo

The company has also created a new logo in the shape of a globe, or as Jemena refers to it, a ‘j-globe’, which the company says represents the diversity of the business. “The colours of the logo reinforce diversity whilst echoing the colours of nature – the blue representing gas, electricity and water; and the green representing a sustainable earth.”

The assets

Jemena continues to maintain over $8 billion of gas and electricity assets including Melbourne’s United Energy and Multinet Gas distribution networks, Sydney’s Jemena Gas Networks, the ActewAGL gas and electricity networks in the Australian Capital Territory, in addition to the Eastern Gas Pipeline and Queensland Gas Pipeline.

Recently, the company announced the expansion of the Queensland Gas Pipeline to 49 PJ/a through the addition of compression at Rolleston and Banana, and 113 km of looping from Moura to Bell Creek.

“The decision to expand the pipeline was in response to industrial and economic growth in the Gladstone region,” says Mr van Weel.

Gas from the pipeline is currently supplied to large industrial customers including Queensland Alumina, Rio Tinto, Orica, Boyne Smelter and Queensland Magnesia, as well as to households and businesses via the distribution networks within Gladstone, Rockhampton and Wide Bay. Construction work is due to commence this year.

Construction was recently completed for the Mila Compressor Station on the Eastern Gas Pipeline, which delivers gas from Longford in eastern Victoria to a connection point at Horsley Park in western Sydney.

Building the compressor station was the first of three stages of activity to increase the pipeline’s capacity. The second stage will involve the installation of a fourth compressor facility at the Longford end of the pipeline, and the addition of a midline compressor station at Michelago. The third stage will comprise the installation of another midline compressor station at Orbost. The midline compressor stations will take gas from the pipeline at the existing scrapper station sites and then direct recompressed gas back into the pipeline system.

The projects

There are currently major projects in which Jemena is involved, including the Colongra Lateral Pipeline.

Jemena designed, built and will operate the Colongra Lateral Pipeline, supplying Delta Electricity’s 600 MW gas turbine peaking power station on the central coast of New South Wales.

The pipeline connects Delta’s Colongra Gas Turbine facility to the existing Sydney to Newcastle pipeline. Jemena started work on the gas pipeline in April 2008 and reached completion in February 2009. The lateral involves the construction of two welded steel pipelines – a road corridor pipeline with a diameter of 250 mm and a Delta land pipeline, 1,050 mm in diameter, in addition to an inlet facility and compressor station at Bushells Ridge and a delivery facility at Munmorah Power Station.

Another project in development is the $100 million Rosehill Recycled Water Scheme, through Jemena subsidiary AquaNet Sydney. AquaNet and Veolia Water have signed a contract with Sydney Water to build a plant and pipeline scheme that will provide 4.3 billion litres per annum of recycled water to industrial customers in western Sydney by 2011. Construction is due to start in early 2009.

Jemena has also been confirmed as the preferred tenderer to provide $50 million worth of electrical infrastructure and civil construction work for Mitsui & Co’s Bald Hills Wind Farm project in Gippsland, Victoria.

“Mitsui has issued Jemena with a letter of intent to negotiate a formal contract on an exclusive basis. The scope of the contract includes provision for a ten year operations and maintenance agreement,” Mr van Weel says.

“The Bald Hills Wind Farm will provide an efficient and reliable source of clean energy, with 52 wind turbine generators producing enough energy to supply over 62,000 homes.”

Mr Van Weel says that Jemena has a view to pursuing more renewable sources of energy in the future. “This project forms the basis for expanding Jemena’s business in an important way, signalling the company’s entry into an emerging renewable energy asset development market. It will be Jemena’s first opportunity to use its renowned electrical infrastructure capability to support the development of a wind farm.”

The skills

Mr van Weel says that Jemena sees ongoing training and constant awareness as integral to successful pipeline operation.

“We have both mandatory training and vocational uplift training in place. We also have a framework to identify gaps in training and have engaged an external company– Romea – to address any gaps that may be identified,” says Mr van Weel.

He says that the company also looks at innovative methods of training, noting that the Queensland Gas Pipeline transmission team is currently learning repair techniques to work on high pressure pipeline infrastructure without cutting gas supply to the client.

“The on-the-job training will enable Jemena to safeguard the client’s plant equipment from sustaining serious, and costly, damage.”

Mr van Weel says that ongoing training also ensures that there is a continuous improvement in safety.

“At Jemena, safety is our number one priority, it is everyone’s responsibility and safety is never compromised. One example of continuous improvement is that we have implemented an incident management and monitoring system.”

Mr van Weel says that the company will continue to improve. “Ongoing industry involvement in maintaining the pipeline standard AS2885, repair technique innovations and focus on environmental management have all contributed to improved performance.”