POWER Digest (Jan. 2011)
TANE and Shaw to Provide EPC Services for South Texas Expansion. Nuclear Innovation North America LLC (NINA), the nuclear development company jointly owned by NRG Energy and Toshiba Corp., on Nov. 29 announced that it awarded the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for South Texas Projects Units 3 and 4 to a restructured EPC consortium formed by Toshiba America Nuclear Energy Corp. (TANE) and The Shaw Group. Shaw will provide a $100 million credit facility to NINA to assist in financing the 2,700-MW nuclear project expansion, which remains on track for permitting in 2012. Its first unit is to come online in 2016 and the second in 2017. The project will be one of the first in the U.S. to use Toshiba’s advanced boiling water reactor technology.
Wood Group Wins EPC Contract for 800-MW Israeli Gas Plant. Wood Group GTS on Dec. 1 said it had been awarded an $875 million engineering, procurement, and construction contract by Israel’s Dorad Energy to build an 800-MW natural gas plant in that country. Wood Group has full turnkey responsibility for the combined-cycle plant, which will use 12 natural gas–fired turbines connected to a heat-recovery steam generator that will provide steam to run two steam turbines. When completed, as is expected within 36 months, the plant will make up about 8% of Israel’s total power generation capacity.
E.ON Commissions 400-MW CCGT Plant in Russia. E.ON on Nov. 26 commissioned a new 400-MW combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) with an efficiency of 56% at Shatura, east of Russia’s capital, Moscow. The project is part of a major investment the German company is making in Russia’s power sector—E.ON plans to increase its power station capacities in Russia by 2,400 MW to a total of 11,000 MW. Three other CCGT plants, projects totaling €2.3 billion, are currently under way at three other sites, two in Surgut and one in Yaiva.
REpower to Provide 48 Turbines for Belgian Offshore Farm. REpower Systems and Belgian offshore project development company C-Power on Nov. 25 said they had signed a contract agreeing to the delivery of 48 wind energy turbines of the REpower 6M type with a total rated capacity of approximately 295 MW. The turbines will be installed during phases 2 (spring 2012) and 3 (mid-2013) of the first Belgian offshore wind farm, Thornton Bank. The offshore wind farm, located about 28 kilometers off the Belgian coast in waters between 12 and 27 meters deep, was officially put into operation at the end of June 2009. REpower in 2008 delivered and installed six REpower 5M type turbines for the first extension stage of the project.
Seven commercial banks will provide nearly €900 million in financing for the Thorton Bank project, making the closing of that contract—as measured by the investment volume—the biggest project financing ever in the offshore wind industry, REpower said in a press release.
Cameco and CGNPC Sign Uranium Supply Agreement. Saskatchewan-based Cameco on Nov. 23 announced that it had signed an agreement with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co. (CGNPC) to supply 29 million pounds of uranium concentrate under a long-term agreement through 2025. CGNPC has the largest number of nuclear power plants under construction in the world. The state-owned enterprise indicates that it has about 17,000 MW of nuclear capacity under construction, and it expects to have more than 50,000 MW online by 2020. The agreement follows the June 24, 2010, signing of a framework agreement with CGNPC and it is subject to Chinese government approval.
Westinghouse to Provide Engineering Services to Spanish Nuclear Plants. Toshiba Corp.–owned Westinghouse Electric Co. has been awarded a five-year contract to provide engineering services to Asociacion Nuclear Asco Vandellos (ANAV) at its Vandellos and Asco nuclear plant sites in Tarragona in Spain. Both plants have Westinghouse-supplied pressurized water reactors. Under contract terms, Westinghouse will provide the nuclear steam supply station (NSSS) and balance-of-plant support, including systems engineering; probabilistic risk assessment (Class 1 and 2); NSSS mechanical and instrumentation and control (I&C) components; diagnosis and engineering of motor-operated valves and air-operated valves; safety and transient analysis; mechanical and fluid systems electrical, I&C, civil, and stress analysis; and environmental and seismic qualification. Westinghouse also will deliver approximately 100 design change packages each year of the contract, which runs through July 1, 2015.
Alstom to Retrofit Belchatow Units in Poland. Alstom on Nov. 11 said it would retrofit six units (Units 7 to 12) of the 4,460-MW Belchatow power plant, Europe’s largest and the world’s second-largest fossil power plant. Under two contracts (a combined value of €140 million) signed with PGE Gornictwo i Energetyka Konwencjonalna S.A., Alstom will supply the high-pressure and intermediate-pressure turbines, its associated auxiliaries, the turbine controller, bypass systems, heater refurbishment, instrumentation and control, and integration engineering coupled with installation supervision. When completed, the retrofit will increase each of the six units’ power output by 20 MW, bringing the total output increase to 120 MW. Alstom will also retrofit the units’ existing electrostatic precipitators. PGE has been modernizing Belchatow since 1997.
—Sonal Patel is POWER’s senior writer.