What it takes to complete a world-first repower
In late 2024, Liebherr-Australia and Yancoal completed the first-ever repower of R 9800 excavators. Since then, the two repowered 800 t machines have been achieving some impressive results, thanks to their new D9812 engines. This project highlights just how much of a difference repowering can make to customers’ existing fleet.
In collaboration with our long-standing relationship and trust in Liebherr, this repower offered us the chance to continue to improve our productivity and lower operation costs, whilst reducing environmental emissions.
Repowers are just one of the many support services offered by Liebherr Mining Service. It is the process of replacing the existing diesel engine modules of Liebherr machines with either an electric drive system or with one of Liebherr’s D98 internal combustion engines, which are designed specifically to thrive in the harsh conditions found on mine sites. For Yancoal, upgrading these R 9800s to D9812 engines – the V12 model in the D98 range – was the right decision for the work these machines would be doing at the Mount Thorley Warkworth (MTW) coal mining operation in New South Wales (Australia).
‘Our aim is to be the highest producing and lowest cost operation, and in collaboration with our long-standing relationship and trust in Liebherr, this repower offered us the chance to continue to improve our productivity and lower operation costs, whilst reducing environmental emissions,’ says Cris Shadbolt, general manager at Yancoal’s MTW site.
Because this was the very first repower of R 9800s in the world, the Liebherr-Australia Pty Ltd technicians taking part in the project needed specialised training in order to successfully complete the engine exchange. After receiving foundational training at Liebherr-Australia’s training facility in Adelaide, the Australian technicians travelled to Switzerland to build on their knowledge with the technical team at Liebherr Machines Bulle SA – one of the production facilities within the Group that manufactures diesel and gas engines. In Switzerland, the Australian technicians learned to perform advanced machine diagnostics and infield mechanical repairs.
A Swiss education
Since 2020, all of Liebherr’s technical training for our range of combustions engines has taken place at the Training Academy at Liebherr Machines Bulle S.A. Since 2022, the Training Academy has dedicated three weeks each year to training Liebherr-Australia technicians. In 2024, one of those weeks was used to train the technicians involved in this repower project, where they gained a comprehensive understanding of the electronics and circuitry in D9812 and D9816 engines as well as advanced strategies for diagnosing any issues that may arise on site.
As Liebherr Machines Bulle personnel imparted their engine wisdom to the Liebherr-Australia team, the Swiss instructors learned a thing or two themselves.
‘Working with Liebherr-Australia during this period has opened our eyes to improvements we can make in our training program,’ says Christophe Petite, director of the training academy at Liebherr Machines Bulle S.A. ‘This project has seen the basic and advanced training courses for our D9812 and our D9816 engines evolve to include additional video and practical training devices. We have also certified two Liebherr-Australia instructors so they can teach this program in country, rather than needing to travel across continents for this knowledge. Two more are set to be certified in early 2026. In fact, a new D9816 simulator has been developed here at Liebherr Machines Bulle and was delivered to Liebherr-Australia’s Perth facility in Western Australia in the third quarter of 2025.’
Technicians from Liebherr-Australia learning undertaking comprehensive training on Liebherr engines at Liebherr Machines Bulle in Switzerland.
What happens during repowering?
The repowering process for the R 9800s actually began at Liebherr Mining’s excavator production facility in Colmar (France). The powerpack modules for the repower were pre-assembled and tested in the factory, with the new D9812 engines installed, before they were shipped to Australia. Further pre-assembly took place once these modules arrived at Liebherr-Australia’s Mount Thorley branch in New South Wales, which included the installation of site compliance options in order to save time during the repower itself on site.
At MTW, after the original powerpack assemblies were removed from the excavators, Liebherr-Australia’s technical team undertook the necessary mechanical and electrical upgrades on the excavators so the powerpack exchange with the D9812 engines could be finalised.
‘Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Mount Thorley team, the entire repower process – from preparation to commissioning – was completed on time and the excavator was back to work for the customer on schedule,’ says Jase O’Connor, customer support manager, New South Wales, Liebherr-Australia.
Supporting the new engines
With the integration of Liebherr engines into these Liebherr excavators, Yancoal now only has one point of contact for any technical or maintenance support they may need for these R 9800s.
‘Any time a machine is offline – whether it’s scheduled maintenance or unscheduled repairs – is unproductive time. That’s why incorporating Liebherr parts and components, such as the D98 range of engines, is so important to us. It streamlines support requirements in these instances and guarantees that the parts being installed meet our stringent quality standards. This way, we can be confident that our customers are getting the very best performance and reliability from their machines,’ explains Wayne Maher, national mining manager, engine solutions, Liebherr-Australia.
We’re hoping to see more and more customers repowering their existing machines with our range of D98 engines so they can see just how much of a difference it can make for their sites.
This repower project for Yancoal was the first R 9800 repower in the world.
Benefits of repower
With their new D9812 engines, these two R 9800s have been performing exceptionally well and the MTW team are incredibly happy with what they’ve seen from the machines so far.
‘Since the repowers of our two R 9800s in late 2024, Mount Thorley Warkworth has seen numerous benefits which include increased productivity, improved reliability and a common work platform to maintain. There has been a 125% or 113 hr increase in Mean Time Between Failures across our four engines and a material movement and load factor improvement of 5.1 BCM / L of fuel burn. These are exciting numbers as we look to reduce emissions and increase overall productivity,’ shares Shadbolt.
The performance achieved by these machines for Yancoal demonstrates how powerful an option like repower is for customers’ existing fleets.
‘The results we’ve seen from the D98 engines at MTW so far show that repowering existing machines can go a long way to optimising productivity on site. We’ll be sharing more detailed information about just how powerful this combination of D9812 engines and our ultra-class excavators can be in the near future,’ says O’Connor. ‘But right now we’re hoping to see more and more customers repowering their existing machines with our range of D98 engines so they can see just how much of a difference it can make for their sites.’