With commercial operation of Madison Unit 3, Cleco Power now claims bragging rights for owning the largest 100% petroleum coke–fired circulating fluidized bed power plant in North America. For using readily available fuel in an environmentally attractive manner, adopting fuel-flexible combustion technology, balancing the utility’s generation portfolio, and adopting an innovative fuel-handling system design, Madison Unit 3 is the winner of POWER’s 2010 Marmaduke Award for excellence in operation and maintenance. The award is named for Marmaduke Surfaceblow, the fictional marine engineer and plant troubleshooter par excellence.
Cleco Corp. has provided electricity for customers in central Louisiana since 1934. Today, Cleco Power LLC (Cleco) owns 2,532 MW of generating resources through the regulated business that serves about 277,000 customers in central Louisiana and another 1,355 MW through the unregulated assets owned by Cleco Midstream Resources. With the start-up of a new flex-fuel unit in Louisiana, the utility has positioned itself to continue providing low-cost, reliable electricity for years to come while solving multiple asset management problems.
Cleco, like many other utilities, found itself with aging assets and an unbalanced mix of generating resources, leaving it vulnerable to a wildly fluctuating natural gas market. By 2004, Cleco predicted two events would occur in the next few years given the fuel mix of its asset portfolio. First, the company was expected to be short of capacity in about six years, and second, it was relying on natural gas to produce about 70% of its power needs. Meanwhile, its newest solid fuel plants were no longer new. Dolet Hills, jointly owned by Cleco and AEP SWEPCO, a 650-MW lignite-fired plant, which went into commercial service in 1986, was the most recent solid fuel plant constructed by Cleco. Prior to that plant’s start-up was the Wyoming coal–burning 550-MW Rodemacher 2 (jointly owned by Cleco, Louisiana Energy and Power Authority, and Lafayette Utilities System), which entered commercial service in 1982. Unit 1, a 440-MW plant fired by natural gas or low-sulfur fuel oil, was completed in 1975.
A new integrated resource plan was developed that would not only balance Cleco’s asset portfolio but also improve overall system efficiency while containing rising fuel costs. The plan also required significant structural changes to and investment in the company’s asset base, such as:
- Removing an obsolete 300-MW, natural gas–fired, simple-cycle unit from the generation fleet in 1998.
- Purchasing a 50% ownership in the 1,160-MW Acadia Power Station (Unit 1), a high-efficiency, gas-fired combined-cycle plant, in February of this year. Entergy Louisiana LLC, a subsidiary of Entergy Corp., currently has a sale pending for Unit 2 and 50% of the common assets. Cleco operates and maintains the plant.
- Announcing in July 2005 the planned construction of the new $1 billion, 600-MW net Madison Unit 3 solid fuel–fired plant, which entered commercial service in February 2010 (Figure 1). Key plant construction milestones are summarized in Table 1.
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| 1. Best in class. Cleco Power spent about $1 billion to construct the 600-MW Madison Unit 3 solid fuel–fired unit, which entered commercial service in February 2010. Madison Unit 3 is the largest circulating fluidized boiler plant in North America that burns 100% petroleum coke. Lake Rodemacher (also known as Cleco Lake) is used by sportsmen and provides cooling water for the three units at the plant. Courtesy: Cleco Power |
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| Table 1. Madison Unit 3 key dates. Source: Cleco Power |
According to Bill Fontenot, group vice president of Cleco Power, the entire plan was carefully orchestrated to achieve Cleco’s urgently needed fuel balance and generating efficiency goals. There was no turning back after the older plants were removed from service, placing Cleco 800 MW to 900 MW short of demand until the new units were added to the system either by acquisition or construction. In the meantime, expensive market purchases of electricity were required to fill the gap between supply and demand.
“Rodemacher 3 [now Madison Unit 3] is key to our strategy to be self-sufficient in our power supply and increase our fuel flexibility,” said Mike Madison, president and CEO of Cleco Corp. when speaking about the commissioning of the new unit. “Having the capability to use multiple solid fuels including biomass will help us lower customer fuel costs and give us the potential to use alternative fuels to generate power.”
Rodemacher Power Station was renamed the Brame Energy Center in honor of Scott O. Brame, former chairman of the board and CEO of Cleco on June 15, 2010. Also, Unit 1 was renamed Nesbitt Unit 1, and Rodemacher 3 was renamed Madison Unit 3. Rodemacher 2 retained its original name.
Today, with Acadia and Madison Unit 3 in operation, Cleco is in the enviable position of having about 300 MW in excess capacity with a well-balanced fuel mix. By the end of 2010, that mix is expected to be 52% solid fuels, 39% natural gas and oil, and 9% purchased power.
“Commercial operation of Rodemacher 3 is the culmination of six years of hard work,” said Madison. “Our focus, determination, and resilience have brought us to a memorable point in our company’s 75-year history.”
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