August 15, 2006

Mountainview Power Plant, Redlands, California

Laszlo von Lazar, Bechtel Power Corp.

Mother Nature intervenes

Over a 15-day period in December 2004 and early 2005, record rains drenched Southern California. Once again, the project was back to pumping out the pits and foundations. In addition, a new route had to be found for moving the HRSG modules after the chosen route washed out. Setbacks resulting from the record rainfall had direct cost and productivity impacts on Unit 3 and seriously delayed key equipment deliveries for Unit 4. The target completion date for Unit 4 had slipped to mid-February 2006, then only 10 months away. And, given SCE's goal that the project could finish in 2005, cutting 1.5 months of schedule in those 10 months would present an even greater challenge.

Despite the many challenges, work on Unit 3 progressed well—so well, in fact, that less than a year after restarting the project, the team achieved a major milestone: energization of the unit in February 2005 and the switching of its power supply from Bechtel's construction project transformers to permanent transformers on the precise date set two years before. Crews from Mountainview Power Co., Bechtel, and Mountainview worked smoothly together in a show of teamwork to execute the energization.

The home stretch

As Unit 3 moved into the start-up phase, the construction and start-up teams worked in even closer cooperation. Construction completed installation of all electrical devices and components, while start-up tested key equipment. "When both groups work in parallel, it saves time on the overall schedule," commented Bechtel's site manager, Rick Mays.

Unit 3 achieved "substantial completion" on December 9, 2005. However, work on Unit 4, after the rains, had fallen three months behind Unit 3's schedule. Looking to their experience with Unit 3 to identify lessons learned and apply them to Unit 4, the Bechtel project team worked closely with Mountainview and key vendors to proactively address problems and develop workarounds. This total team effort eked out a savings of another two months on Unit 4 during late construction and start-up. As a result, Bechtel was able to achieve substantial completion of Unit 4 at 6:00 p.m. on December 31, 2005—exceeding SCE's expectations.

Project officials also point to an impressive series of additional accomplishments: erecting eight pieces of heavy equipment—the four CTs and their generators—in 24 days (Figure 5), flushing the lube oil systems of the CTs, installing and aligning both units' HRSGs, and setting all the major equipment in place. The project team (Figure 6) devoted two months to planning, anticipating problems, and developing contingencies before the equipment reached the site.

5. Major lifts. Four combustion turbines and their generators were set and aligned in 24 days. Courtesy: Bechtel Power

Reflecting on the team effort to apply lessons learned in the final stages of Unit 3 construction and start-up in order to recover time from an already aggressive Unit 4 completion schedule, Mountainview's engineering manager, Alan Sloboda, said, "There was a tremendous feeling of accomplishment, seeing it all come together. It's something I'll never forget."

—Laszlo von Lazar was Bechtel Power's project manager for the Mountainview Power Project. He can be reached at lvonlaza@bechtel.com or 301-228-8568.