March 15, 2008

Global Monitor (March 2008)

POWER digest

News items of interest to power industry professionals.

GE sends four LMS100s to Latin America. GE Energy has received contracts from three companies totaling over $142 million to supply four 50-Hz LMS100 simple-cycle gas turbines. These are the first sales of the 50-Hz version of this new turbine package that boasts of 44% thermal efficiency.

Pampa Energia purchased the first 50-Hz LMS100 for its Pampa Guemes project expansion in the province of Chubut, Argentina. Commercial operation is expected in the third quarter. Following this purchase, Inversora Ingentis S.A., a special-purpose company created by Emgasud and Pampa Holding, purchased two LMS100 units as part of a 500-MW development project that will ultimately generate 400 MW of turbine and 100 MW of wind power.

The Chilean power company Colbun S.A. also recently purchased an LMS100 gas turbine unit. Its system will be commissioned mid-year at the Los Pinos project near Charrua in Region VIII outside of Santiago, Chile. Colbun has been a power producer in Chile since 1986 and has both hydro and thermal power generating assets. The LMS100's fast 50-MW-per-minute ramp rate will complement Colbun's hydro generation in meeting fluctuating power demand.

The Chilean power market is very similar to that in deregulated U.S. states in terms of its use of nodal prices and spot markets. Santiago is located in the Central Integrated System (SIC) and has a total capacity of 8.4 GW and a peak demand of 6.1 GW. The SIC power market is supported by roughly 70% hydroelectricity and 25% natural gas and is in need of nearly 600 MW of new capacity annually to meet firm reserve margin needs.

RWE Power to develop new power storage system. RWE Power has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with GE for the joint development and validation of a zero-emission storage technology (advanced adiabatic compressed air energy storage or AA-CAES) with higher efficiency than is currently available. The development project is aimed at finding alternative paths for large-scale energy storage in an effort to better align supply and demand.

“The highly fluctuating power input is expected to increase in the future, if only because of the planned massive expansion of wind energy,” explained Dr. Johannes Lambertz, CEO of RWE Power AG, Fossil-Fired Power Plants portfolio. “Therefore it is important to address this challenge and develop concepts for efficient storage in due time.” He continued, “RWE Power and GE will initially conduct a joint feasibility study to be completed by end of 2008. Based on the findings of this study, a first demonstration plant is scheduled for 2012.”

AA-CAES is a zero-emission storage technology with higher efficiency than currently available energy storage solutions. A major challenge will be to develop a compressor technology that can withstand high temperatures during compression and ensure high availability of compressed air energy storage (CAES) for power plants. To prevent this heat from being lost, it is extracted from the compressed air, before the latter is stored in a cavern, and directed to a separate thermal energy storage facility.

“We’re excited about this project because we believe that thanks to GE’s vast experience in compressor technology, we have the capability to study and propose unique solutions as an alternative to the current state of art,” said Claudi Santiago, president and CEO of GE Oil & Gas, which will study the compressor technology required.

Foster Wheeler awarded two CFB boiler contracts. Foster Wheeler Ltd. has been awarded a contract by Harbin Power Engineering Co., Ltd. (HPE) for the design of two CFB steam generators for the second phase of the Cam Pha Power Plant Project in Cam Pha, Vietnam. Commercial operation of the new boilers is scheduled for third quarter 2010.

Foster Wheeler has received a full notice to proceed on this contract to design two 150 MW-class CFB steam generators for HPE, a subsidiary of Harbin Power Plant Equipment Group Corp. The two boilers are designed to burn waste anthracite and slurry.

Foster Wheeler was also selected to supply two 75 MW-class CFB steam generators for Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical Co. Ltd., located in southeast Fujian Province in the People's Republic of China. This coke-fired circulating fluidized bed project is part of a major residue processing project by the petrochemical company. Commercial operation of the new boilers is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2009.

Pakistan opens new desalination/power generation plant. President Pervez Musharraf inaugurated the Defence Housing Authority's (DHA) water desalination and power generation project in mid-February. The project produces 90 MW of power and 3 million gallons of water per day. The power is sent to the distribution system of Karachi Electric Supply Corp. and the water is for DHA's needs. The plant's approximate cost is $115 million.

Siemens Pakistan, Siemens AG Germany, and Sweden's Alfa Laval provided technical assistance. Alfa Laval provided the desalination units, and Siemens Germany provided the combined-cycle power plant. The plant consists of a gas turbine, heat-recovery boiler, steam turbine, and two desalination units that produce desalinated water through the thermal evaporative process.

The combined fuel cycle uses exhaust steam from the steam turbine through condensation and distillation. The desalination plant uses modern multi-effect desalination evaporation technology, which makes operation highly efficient.

SWEPCO's Harry D. Mattison Units 1 and 2 go commercial. American Electric Power's Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) began commercial operation of Units 1 and 2 of the new Harry D. Mattison Power Plant at Tontitown, Ark., in early January.

Two simple-cycle, natural gas–fired combustion turbines were declared in commercial operation Dec. 28, 2007. For immediate service, the units have an initial combined capacity of 150 MW.

SWEPCO began commercial operation of Units 3 and 4 on July 12, 2007. Those two simple-cycle, natural gas–fueled combustion turbines also had an initial combined capacity of 150 MW. After testing is completed on each of the two pairs of units in the spring of 2008, the capacity of each pair of units will increase by 20 MW to a combined capacity of 170 MW. When complete, the four units in the $131 million project will have a total capacity of 340 MW.

“The fast-track efforts that brought Units 3 and 4 on line in time for the summer of 2007 have continued in our work to have Units 1 and 2 ready for the summer of 2008,” said Venita McCellon-Allen, SWEPCO president and chief operating officer.

“In less than seven months, the site was transformed from a pasture to an operating 150-MW power station, and now all four units are operating and will be ready at full strength of 340 MW for the summer of 2008,” McCellon-Allen said. Wood Group Power Solutions provided project management and construction services for the project.

Corrections

In our December 2007 issue's Top Plant article on the Steel Winds Project, p. 53, we should have stated that “wind turbine ratings have gone from 700 kW to more than 2 MW over the past decade.”

In that same issue, on p. 65 in “Developing wind projects in California—or anywhere” we lost a decimal point. The Production Tax Credit is 1.9 cents/kWh. Kathryn E. George, a senior economist at Princeton Energy Resources International in Rockville, Md., kindly pointed out that the “inflation-adjusted, 10-year, 1.5 cents per kWh [PTC] credit was increased to 2.0 cents per kWh for 2007 for wind energy plants, per Notice 2007-40 of the Internal Revenue Service (May 2007).”

The January 2008 Global Monitor CWA 316(b) conference report provided an incorrect web address for Tetra Tech, which contributed the report. The correct web address is www.tetratech.com.

POWER regrets the errors.