First New Plant in 37 Years
MWE selected Kansas City – based Burns & McDonnell in March 2007 to provide engineering design, procurement, and construction services for the Goodman Energy Center (GEC). The plant is named for Mr. Jack Goodman, general manager of Midwest Energy and its predecessor company, Central Kansas Electric Cooperative, from 1951 to 1992. Earnie Lehman, Midwest Energy’s president and general manager, paid tribute to the plant’s namesake when announcing the project: "Our Board and employees could think of no more fitting honor for Mr. Goodman, who created Midwest Energy, than to give his name to our first power plant constructed in 37 years."
Burns & McDonnell engineers were charged with designing a plant that would provide capacity and black-start capabilities to help support MWE’s 325-MW total system demand and backup power supply in the event of a transmission outage (Figure 1).
1. Great Plains plant. Midwest Energy Inc.’s 76-MW Goodman Energy Center provides peak load capacity and system reliability support for central Kansas. The plant entered service during the summer of 2008. Courtesy: Burns & McDonnell
Construction of the project began without delay in April 2007. A June 2008 contract deadline was chosen to assist MWE in meeting summer peak demand.
The first six units, representing 50 MW of generating capacity, entered commercial service on June 3, 2008, just in time for the summer peak demand, only 15 months after MWE gave the project a green light to proceed. The remaining three units began producing electricity on July 16, 2008.
Engines at the Heart of the Plant
The first step in the fast-track $62 million project was to select perhaps the most efficient gas engine on the market, which has a long record of reliable generation in peaking service: the Wärtsilä 20V34SG natural gas – fired engine. Equipped with selective catalytic reduction technology to meet the local stringent air emissions limits, each of the nine Wärtsilä engines has the following nominal performance:
The net site rating of the nine gas engines totals 76 MW. The cost of these nine engines plus appurtenances was just under half of the total project cost, or approximately $30 million.
Wärtsilä, headquartered in Finland, has a long history and extensive experience in the design, building, and turnkey supply of power plants. At the beginning of 2009, Wärtsilä reported more than 40 GW of power installed in power plants in 165 countries. The company is undoubtedly the world’s authority on decentralized intermediate- and peak-load gas engines. These engines are also well proven in other similar peaking applications, including perhaps the largest natural gas – fired engine plant in the U.S.: Cogentrix Energy Inc.’s 111-MW Plains End facility near Arvada, Colo., a POWER 2003 Top Plant. Plains End has 20 Wärtsilä 18V34SG units that can produce 111 MW of intermediate and peak load power.
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