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BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY FOR THE GLOBAL GENERATION INDUSTRY
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Vol. 153 No. 9 September 2009 www.powermag.com
Top Plants:
Six Innovative
Gas-Fired Plants
10 Water Treatment
Mistakes to Avoid
Gas Power Projects Thriving
Capturing Carbon: Options
and Costs, Part I
Special: Map of North American
Gas-Fired Plants
CIRCLE 1 ON READER SERVICE CARD
September 2009
|
POWER www.powermag.com 1
Established 1882 Vol. 153 No. 9 September 2009
www.powermag.com
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ON THE COVER
In Italyfamous for Ferrari cars, Armani suits, and other symbols of sophisticated style
its no surprise that the Livorno Ferraris power plant building is an example of attractive, yet
functional architectural design. Behind the sleek exterior is a brawny 800-MW combined-
cycle plant. Courtesy: E.ON
COVER STORY: GAS-FIRED TOP PLANTS
26 Edward W. Clark Generating Station, Clark County, Nevada
This NV Energy plant has generated power since 1955, the year the Las Vegas Strip
got its first high-rise, and has grown and evolved with the desert destination. The
areas recent growth spurt and increasing renewable generation on the grid prompted
the addition of peaking power capacity that promises to keep the lights hot and the
rooms cool.
30 Goodman Energy Center, Hays, Kansas
With 16% wind capacity, Midwest Energy blows away the competition among Kansas
utilities. Both to back up that renewable generation and avoid the price penalty of pur-
chasing peak power, this cooperative determined that the best way to face the future
was with a gas-fired peaking plant. Nine Wrtsil engines give Midwest the ultimate
in flexibility with next to no performance penalties.
34 Livorno Ferraris Power Plant, Vercelli Province, Italy
A new 800-MW Siemens combined-cycle plant, the first plant built by a non-Italian
operator, promises to keep Italys industrial north humming. Livorno Ferraris incorpo-
rates not only the latest technologies for generation and environmental performance,
but it also illustrates that Italians value design in all aspects of their culture. The facil-
itys low visual impact and clean lines prove that power plants dont have to be purely
utilitarian.
38 Portlands Energy Centre, Ontario, Canada
Youd think a power project located at the edge of a major metropolitan area would
take ages to build, but in this case youd be wrong. This 550-MW combined-cycle plant
fed power to the grid less than two years after the EPC contract was signed. Of course,
it helped that Portlands was developed on land with existing access to transmission
and gas lines, demonstrating that recycling works for power plants as well as for
people.
40 Riverside Repowering Project, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Xcel Energys Riverside Repowering Project is the last of three projects designed to
significantly decrease power plant emissions in the Twin Cities area and lower costs
for customers. Given the plants urban setting, a carefully orchestrated phased con-
struction approach, reusing as much of the existing equipment and systems as pos-
sible, and greater-than-usual utility involvement were the keys to success.
46 Royal Pride Holland Commercial Greenhouse Cogeneration Plant, Middenmeer,
North Holland Province, Netherlands
One of the Netherlands largest commercial tomato greenhouses is the site of the
worlds first installation of GE Energys new commercial 24-cylinder gas engine tech-
nology from Jenbacher. The two 4-MW J624 units provide heat, power, and fertilizer
from exhaust gas CO
2
.
34
TK
www.powermag.com POWER
|
September 2009 2
INDUSTRY TRENDS
50 Map of Natural GasFired Generation in North America
SPECIAL REPORT
CARBON CAPTURE TECHNOLOGIES
52 Combined-Cycle Carbon Capture: Options and Costs, Part I
European regulators are considering the possibility of regulating CO
2
emissions
from gas-fired plants as well as coal-fired ones, and other parts of the world may
follow. But making CO
2
capture choices in a nascent technology area is dangerous.
A wiser approach is to consider accommodations available today that require little
plant modification. Part I looks at the performance implications of the most promis-
ing options.
FEATURES
FUELS
56 New Natural GasFired Projects on an Upswing
Industrial Info Resources summarizes the status of gas-fired power plant projects
that are in the pipeline and considers what the future may hold for gas-fired genera-
tion in the U.S.
INSTRUMENTATION & CONTROL
59 Pressure-Sensing Line Problems and Solutions
Sensing lines in power plants may encounter a number of problems that can affect
the accuracy and response time of the pressure-sensing system. Learn about a noise
analysis technique for online detection of these problems that could make your job
a little easier.
HUMAN RESOURCES
64 Optimizing the Life-Cycle Cost of Human Capital
A Fluor executive director discusses an approach that can help power plants deter-
mine which job functions are best handled by staff and which are best to outsource.
DEPARTMENTS
6 SPEAKING OF POWER
Dead Mans Hand
GLOBAL MONITOR
8 Operation of Worlds First Supercritical CFB Steam Generator Begins in Poland
10 Report: Costs for First-Generation Carbon Capture Plants Will Soar
12 Nuclear Developments in Europe
13 Swiss Solar Plane Prototype Designed to Fly Day and Night
13 Scotland Officially Opens 100-MW Glendoe Hydro Plant
15 Biomass Electricity More Efficient than Ethanol, Researchers Say
15 DOE Funds Electrification of Transportation Sector
15 POWER Digest
FOCUS ON O&M
18 Avoid These 10 Mistakes When Selecting Your New Water Treatment System
20 Accurate Online Silica Analyzers Ensure Boiler Performance, Add Boiler Life
24 LEGAL & REGULATORY
SWEPCOs Construction Conundrum
68 NEW PRODUCTS
76 COMMENTARY
To Modernize the Grid, Think Smaller
By Kurt Yeager, executive director of the Galvin Electricity Initiative
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September 2009 4
Now incorporating and
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September 2009 6
SPEAKING OF POWER
Dead Mans Hand
T
he stage is being set for negotiating a successor agree-
ment to the Kyoto Protocol. The U.S. is trying to exert
some leadership in the international climate change debate
by attempting to build consensus for binding carbon emission
reductions prior to the upcoming Copenhagen meeting. Mean-
while, carbon legislation is, thankfully, stalled in the Senate,
and developing countries are rejecting our entreaties. You cant
win if other countries dont want to play.
Trouble Begins at Home
The Copenhagen meeting scheduled for early December begins
the formal negotiations of a follow-on agreement to the Kyoto
Protocol, the international agreement dedicated to reducing
anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Developing
nations, such as China and India, were not included in any nu-
merical emissions limitations in the original Kyoto agreement.
The Obama administration has signaled that it supports devel-
oping a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol but will sign
a new agreement only if China commits to making significant,
robust reductions of carbon dioxide. However, President Barack
Obama can strut his moral authority for demanding international
reductions in carbon emissions at Copenhagen only if the Senate
passes and he signs the bloated Waxman-Markey American Clean
Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) or some variant.
However, ACES is a bad hand for one specific reason: It prom-
ises to achieve only the slightest reduction in global ambient
temperatures0.05C to 0.2C through 2050, depending on which
source you believeat the cost of trillions of dollar to the U.S.
economy. John McCain, coauthor of the Lieberman-McCain Cli-
mate Stewardship and Innovation Act that failed a 2007 Senate
vote, is quoted in the August 1 issue of The Wall Street Journal
as saying, [The Waxman-Markey] 1,400-page bill is a farce. They
bought every industry offsteel mills, agriculture, utilities.
I would not only not vote for it, he continued, I am op-
posed to it entirely because it does damage to those of us who
believe that we need to act in a rational fashion about climate
change.
Even climate scientist James Hansen states in an editorial
published by Columbia University on July 13 titled Strategies to
Address Global Warming that The truth is, the climate course
set by Waxman-Markey is a disaster course. It is an exceedingly
inefficient way to get a small reduction of emissions. It is less
than worthless.
India Points to Crisis of Credibility
China and India do not get a pass in the upcoming negotiations
as they did with Kyoto. U.S. carbon emissions have stabilized,
yet the Center for Global Development estimates that China sur-
passed the U.S. in carbon emissions from power generation fa-
cilities in August 2008, and that country now emits a fifth of the
worlds carbon. India, in third place behind the U.S., is rapidly
closing the gap.
There are widely disparate views about which countries should
share the economic pain that would follow from the binding re-
ductions in carbon emissions sought in Copenhagen. The July 20
Washington Post reported on Secretary of State Hillary Clintons
three-day tour of India, during which she tried to arm-twist Indian
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh into agreeing to a binding
limit on carbon emissions. First to speak to the reporters was Clin-
ton during the post-meeting photo op. She described the meet-
ings as very fruitful and so on. Next, as dozens of cameras rolled
and Clinton looked on, Ramesh played his trump card: Indias
position, let me be clear, is that we are simply not in the position
to take legally binding emissions targets. Ramesh characterized
his statement as Indias official position on the subject and as
not a debating strategy.
China Says, You Buy, You Pay
Chinas position on capping carbon emissions is similar to In-
dias, with a slight twist. China released a position paper on May
20 that describes its views on any future climate change agree-
ment. The paper called on the richest countries in the world to
reduce GHGs by 40% below 1990 by 2020, give up to 1% of their
GDP to help poorer countries implement climate change mitiga-
tion measures, and announced their opposition to any binding
limits on its emissions. The paper also adds a new twist to the
discussion: Countries that buy goods from China should be held
responsible for the carbon dioxide emitted by the factories that
make them.
Rock and a Hard Place
So where does that leave the U.S. going into the Copenhagen
negotiations? If the negotiations were poker, then the U.S. is
all-in, and China and India are calling our bluff. It looks to me as
if were likely to draw a pair of eights to go with ACES.
Dr. Robert Peltier, PE, Editor-in-Chief
At American Society of Business Publication Editors banquets
in Washington, D.C., in mid-July, POWER won the following
awards:
Managing Editor Gail Reitenbach and Senior Designer Leslie Claire
won a national bronze for the July 2008 Table of Contents.
Senior Writer Sonal Patel won the gold for feature stories in the
Southeast Regional division for Whistling in the dark: Inside
South Africas power crisis (Nov. 2008).
Managing Editor Gail Reitenbach won the silver for feature sto-
ries in the Southeast Regional division for Workforce manage-
ment lessons from women in power generation (Nov. 2008).
POWER Wins ASBPE Awards
GE Energy
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September 2009 8
GLOBAL MONITOR
GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR GLOBAL MONI TOR
Operation of Worlds First
Supercritical CFB Steam
Generator Begins in Poland
The worlds first supercritical circulating
fluidized-bed (CFB) steam generator be-
gan successful operation at the Lagisza
power plant in Poland early this July,
according to power equipment and en-
gineering firm Foster Wheeler. The new
CFBbelieved to be the worlds largest
replaced 1960s-era pulverized coal units
at the power plant owned by Polish util-
ity Poludniowy Koncern Energetyczny SA
(PKE) (Figure 1).
Foster Wheeler provided turnkey supply
of the boiler island, including engineering
and design, erection, civil work, start-up,
and commissioning. Many existing plant
systems, including those for coal handling
and water treatment, were renovated for
use with the new 460-MW CFB unit.
The unit incorporates a number of ad-
vanced design features, such as compact
solid separators, INTREX superheaters,
and low-temperature flue gas heat re-
covery that captures valuable heat that
would otherwise be lost. It also em-
ploysfor the first time ever in a CFB
Benson vertical-tube supercritical steam
technology.
Specifically, in relation to the older,
de-commissioned boilers, the new CFB
burns less fuel and produces significantly
lower levels of carbon dioxide and other
emissions for each megawatt generated,
said Pertti Kinnunen, executive vice presi-
dent of engineering and technology for
the Finnish subsidiary of Foster Wheelers
Global Power Group. Kinnunen is said to
have been responsible for conceptual de-
sign of the boiler in 2003.
CFB technology is a cleaner-coal plat-
form with a unique low-temperature com-
bustion process that efficiently burns both
traditional fuels and carbon-neutral fuels.
Unlike conventional steam generators that
burn the fuel in a large, high-temperature
flame, CFB technology does not have burn-
ers or a flame within its furnace. Instead,
it uses fluidization technology to mix and
circulate fuel particles with limestone as
they burn in a lower-temperature combus-
tion process. The limestone captures the
sulfur oxides as they are formed, while
the lower burning temperature minimizes
the formation of thermal-nitrogen oxides.
The fuel and limestone particles are re-
cycled over and over back to the process,
which results in high efficiency for burn-
ing the fuel by extending the combustion
residence time, capturing pollutants, and
transferring the fuels heat energy into
high-quality steam to produce power.
Successful operation of the first large-
scale supercritical CFB marks a milestone
in the technologys history. The first com-
mercial CFB was built by Foster Wheeler in
1979. The 5-MW boiler supplied to Suomen
Kuitulevy in Pihlava, Finland, burned wood
residues and peat. It was soon followed by
a 20-MW plant in Kauttua, Finland. Over
the years, CFB technology matured and its
use expanded. In 2002, the first-genera-
tion technology reached peak size, with
two nominal 300-MW boilers being in-
stalled at Jacksonville Energy Authoritys
Northside Generating Station in Florida,
POWERs 2002 Plant of the Year.
The fluidized combustion technology
options continue to evolve. According to
the U.S. Department of Energy, a major
efficiency-enhancing measure for second-
generation pressurized fluidized bed com-
bustors is the integration of a coal gasifier
(carbonizer) to produce a fuel gas. This
fuel gas is combusted in a topping com-
bustor and adds to the combustors flue
gas energy entering the gas turbine, which
is the more efficient portion of the com-
bined cycle. The topping combustor must
exhibit flame stability in combusting low-
Btu gas and have low-NO
x
emission char-
acteristics. To take maximum advantage of
the increasingly efficient commercial gas
turbines, the high-energy gas leaving the
1. Polish power. The worlds first supercritical circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) steam gen-
erator began operating this July at Poludniowy Koncern Energetycznys Lagisza power plant in
Poland. The project marks a milestone in the technologys history. Courtesy: Foster Wheeler
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WANT POWER INDUSTRY
NEWS MORE OFTEN?
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For more detailed information on SOLVAir Select 200 trona and how it cleans acid gas in the stacks, go to
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|
September 2009 10
GLOBAL MONITOR
topping combustor must be nearly free of
particulate matter and alkali/sulfur con-
tent. Also, releases to the environment
from the pressurized fluid bed combus-
tion system must be essentially free of
mercury, an air pollutant for which federal
regulations are in limbo. CFB research and
development also focus on reductions of
both cost and carbon dioxide emissions,
so new sorbents are being evaluated. Sor-
bent utilization has a major influence on
operating costs, and carbon dioxide emis-
sions streams can be used in the produc-
tion of alkali-based sorbents.
Efforts are ongoing at the Power Sys-
tems Development Facility (PSDF) in
Wilsonville, Ala., to ensure that critical
components and subsystems are ready for
the demonstration of second-generation
pressurized fluidized bed combustion. The
PSDF is operated by Southern Company
Services under a Department of Energy
contract to conduct cooperative research
and development with the industry.
Report: Costs for
First-Generation Carbon
Capture Plants Will Soar
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has
of late gained steam as the best way to
mitigate emissions of the greenhouse
gas carbon dioxide (CO
2
) from fossil fuel
power plants, despite evidence that the
approach would require much energy and
increase the fuel needs of a coal-fired
plant by more than 25%. A new study from
Harvard Universitys Belfer Center for Sci-
ence and International Affairs now asserts
that levelized costs for a precombustion
capture plant with CO
2
compressionex-
cluding costs of transport and storage and
any revenue from enhanced oil recovery
(EOR)are going to be much more than
most people realize.
The July 3 report, Realistic Costs of
Carbon Capture, finds that electricity pro-
duced by the first coal power plants built
to employ precombustion capture and
compression technology could cost about
10/kWh more with capture than conven-
tional plants (which the report said ranged
from 8 to 12/kWh). Costs of abatement
were found to be about $150 per metric
ton of carbon dioxide (tCO
2
), with a range
of $120 to $180/tCO
2
avoided.
But as the technology matures, signifi-
cant cost reductions are expected because
of increased scale, lessons learned, and
technological innovations for plant inte-
gration. The additional cost of electricity
with CO
2
capture could reportedly plunge
to about 2 to 5/kWh, with costs in the
range of $35 to $75/tCO
2
. All costs in the
report were based on 2008 data, with costs
of abatement calculated with reference to
conventional supercritical pulverized coal
plants for both emissions and electricity
costs. The average total cost of electric-
ity produced from coal plants in 2008 was
2.75/kWh, according to energy analytics
firm Ventyx.
The cost premium for generating low
carbon electricity with CCS are found to
be broadly similar to the cost premiums
for generating low carbon electricity by
other means, where midcase estimates for
cost premiums over conventional power
generation at present are mainly in the
range of approximately 1025/kWh
(except for onshore wind power at good
sites where cost premiums are lower),
the report says. These cost premiums are
all expected to decline in [the] future as
technologies continue to mature.
This studys levelized costs for carbon
capture and compression are significantly
higher than those estimated in previous
studies. According to a May 2009 survey
by the U.S. nonprofit group Institute of
Energy Research, the Energy Information
Administrations Annual Energy Outlook
2009 puts levelized costs for an advanced
coal-fired power plant with postcombus-
tion capture and storage entering service
in 2016 at $122.60/MWh (or 12/kWh).
This compares with $103.50/MWh for an
advanced coal plant of the same capacity
factor, but without CCS (Figure 2).
The Harvard study is one of several
significant CCS cost studies to have been
released recently from around the world.
In November 2008, McKinsey & Co. found
from its assessment of information gath-
ered from industrial CCS stakeholders that
costs from the first demonstration CCS
projects built in 2015 could range be-
tween 60 per tCO
2
avoided. That cost can
be reduced to 30 to 40 tCO
2
by 2030
because of lessons learned from demon-
2. CCS cost controversy. A July study from Harvards Belfer Center estimates that
electricity produced by the first coal plants to employ precombustion carbon capture and se-
questration technology could cost 10/kWh more than estimates for conventional plants, which
range between 8 and 12/kWh. A survey of levelized costs in the Energy Information Admin-
istrations Annual Energy Outlook 2009 by nonprofit group Institute of Energy Research finds
that electricity from an advanced coal plant with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) using
postcombustion capture and entering service in 2016 will cost 12/kWh. Levelized costs for an
advanced coal plant without CCS at the same capacity factor are estimated at 10/kWh. Note:
Capacity factors for each technology differ. Courtesy: Institute of Energy Research
2
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Transmission investment Variable O&M (including fuel) Fixed O&M Levelized capital cost
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September 2009 12
GLOBAL MONITOR
stration projects, finds the study, Carbon Capture & Storage:
Assessing the Economics.
Other studiesparticularly from companies that are conduct-
ing demonstration CCS projectsput costs even higher than the
Harvard study. Earlier this year, as an example, StatoilHydro con-
cluded in a master plan for a CCS demonstration at Mongstad in
Norway that CCS cost could up to 200 per tCO
2
.
Nuclear Developments in Europe
Recent months brought several developments in Europes much-
touted nuclear renaissance.
Spain Extends Life of Nations Oldest Reactor
Spains government on July 2 granted a four-year extension to
the operating permit of the 466-MW Santa Mara de Garoa nu-
clear power plant (Figure 3). The decision follows a nonbinding
recommendation by Spains nuclear regulator in June to issue a
10-year operating permit extension for the 38-year-old plant that
was scheduled to be decommissioned in 2011on the condi-
tion that it is modernized. That would cost operating companies
Iberdrola and Endesa an estimated 50 million, but it is an in-
vestment they are willing to make.
The plant is by far the oldest remaining nuclear plant in Spain.
Lobbyists in the country have been pushing to extend the plants
operating life, saying that Spain needs nuclear power to support
the nations rapidly growing renewable energy portfolio. Environ-
mentalists, meanwhile, have demanded the plants total shut-
down because they claim the reactor has suffered from severe
cracking, and that corrosion has affected various components in
the reactor vessel.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero defended
the governments decision, saying that Spain needs the energy
and the Garoa area needs the economic activityeven though
the plant produces only about 1% of the countrys electricity, has
aging technology, and produces 50% more high-level waste than
Spains other five nuclear plants.
Nuclear power produces 20% of Spains electricity, but permits
for running most of the other plants will also expire by 2011or
within the mandate of Zapateros government. A decision to pro-
long the life of the Garoa plant on the Ebro River is a major
reversal for Zapatero, who, during general elections in 2004 and
2008, pledged to gradually phase out nuclear power.
German Nuclear Policy Depends on Upcoming Election
Nuclear power in Germany may see new life following the Sept.
27 general election. The countrys government in 2000, under
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, agreed to phase out all of the
countrys 17 reactors by 2021. But the looming power gap of
around 21 GWnearly 25% of the countrys overall power pro-
ductioncould strong-arm Chancellor Angela Merkels Christian
Democrats and the Liberal party to postpone the closures. The
Social Democrats continue to push for the phase-out, however, in
favor of renewable energy such as wind and solar power.
The election in September could, therefore, decide whether
or not the phase-out continues. Reports from the nations po-
litical media say the race is too close to call but that opinion
polls show Merkels Christian Democrats and Liberals are gaining
public favor.
Bulgaria Desperate for Investors to Save Belene
Bulgarias center-right government said in late July that if it does
not find private investors for its majority stake in the planned
Belene nuclear power plant, it will be forced to abandon the
project. Owing to tight global liquidity and the recession, the
government said it cannot afford to take on loans to fund its 51%
stake in the 2,000-MW plant.
The previous Socialist-led administration wanted to build Be-
lene the countrys second nuclear planton the Danube River
to recover Bulgarias position as a major power exporter in the
3. A half life. Spains government in July granted a four-year exten-
sion to the 466-MW Santa Mara de Garoa nuclear power plant, a 38-
year-old plant that is by far the countrys oldest nuclear plant. Spains
prime minister said the country needs the energy, even though the
plant produces about 1% of the nations electricity. Courtesy: Foro
Nuclear
September 2009
|
GLOBAL MONITOR
Balkans. The country had contracted Russias Atomstroyexport,
Frances Areva, and Germanys Siemens to build Belene. Then it
picked, with much fanfare, German utility RWE for the remaining
49% in the 4 billion Belene plant.
Since then, analysts estimate that project costs have surged to
more than 6 billion. The previous administration had even ne-
gotiated a 3.8 billion state loan with the Russian government,
but the new government says it is not willing to provide any state
guarantees for loans.
Financial Crisis Impacts Russias Grand Nuclear Plans
Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said in mid-July that
the global economic slowdown has affected its extensive nuclear
power plant construction program. According to the so-called
Master layout plan for energy-producing capacities projected up
to 2020, the current approved schedule in April 2007 (and then
amended and re-endorsed in March 2008) calls for 36 new nuclear
reactors to be built in the next decade. The program envisaged
starting up one unit per year from 2009, two from 2012, three
from 2015, and four from 2016. Nuclear capacity was expected to
almost triple by 2020.
Today, under crisis conditions, the time frame when we will
need three to four [nuclear plant equipment] sets [per year] will
be pushed back, but it will not be cancelled, just pushed back,
taking into account the changing demand in energy. As we come
out of the crisis, we will be needing all of this again, Rosatom
head Sergei Kiriyenko reportedly told journalists in March this
year.
This July, he confirmed that in the face of the financial crisis
and declining energy demand, the nation had decided to put off
the peak of the program for several years. We had planned to
construct two reactors per year, but we have now revised the
program and now, in the coming years, we will build one reactor
per year, he said.
Swiss Solar Plane Prototype
Designed to Fly Day and Night
The first aircraft designed to fly day and night propelled solely
by solar energy was unveiled at Dbendorf airfield, Switzerland,
in late June. The Solar Impulse has the wingspan of a Boeing
747-400 and the weight of an average family car (1,600 kg) (Fig-
ure 4). More than 12,000 solar cells mounted onto the wings
will power four electric motors with a maximum 10 horsepower
each. During the day, the solar cells are designed to also charge
lithium-polymer batteries (400 kg), which will allow the airplane
to fly through the night.
Adventurer Bertrand Piccard, who unveiled the Solar Impulse
along with Solar Impulse CEO Andr Borschberg, retraced the his-
tory of the project since it was launched in 2003. They said it
took six years of calculations, simulations, and tests for the 70-
person team to complete the aircraft prototypeHB-SIA. The
prototypes mission is to demonstrate the feasibility of a com-
plete day-night-day cycle, running on nothing but solar energy.
This year and next year the plane will make its first test flights
including a complete night flight over Switzerland. Based on the
results of those flights, the prototype will be improved.
The Solar Impulses inventors hope that starting in 2012,
a second experimental plane, HB-SIB, will circumnavigate the
world in five stagesalbeit slowly. With only 40 horsepower,
the aircraft takes off at 22 mph and then accelerates at altitude
to an estimated speed of only 44 mphas fast as an average
scooter.
Scotland Officially Opens
100-MW Glendoe Hydro Plant
In late June, Scotland officially opened the Glendoe Hydro
Scheme, a 100-MW project whose construction near Loch Ness in
the Scottish Highlands was the regions biggest civil engineer-
ing project in recent times. Planning for the project began in
2001, and it took three years to build. Today, the project has the
highest headthe drop from the reservoir to the turbineof
4. Soaring on solar. An aircraft prototype unveiled this June
runs solely on solar energy via 12,000 solar cells mounted onto the
wings. The plane, which features a wingspan of a Jumbo Jet and the
weight of an average family car, has been designed to fly day and night.
At 40 horsepower, it moves slowly however, accelerating to only 44
mph at altitude. Courtesy: Solar Impulse
|
September 2009 14
GLOBAL MONITOR
any hydro station in the UK, allowing it
to generate more energy from every cubic
meter of water than any other facility in
the country, says project owner Scottish
and Southern Energy (SSE).
The reservoir was formed by the con-
struction of a 960-meter-long, 35-m-
high dam on the River Taff (Figure 5).
The projects more complex construction
phase was marked by digging an exten-
sive tunnel system, which measures 16
km in total. In order to carve the tunnels
out of the underlying bedrock, a 200-m-
long boring machine was used. SSE says
that in one instance, the machine entered
the hillside in summer 2006 and emerged
about two years later, having created 8
km of tunnels.
The actual power station is housed in a
cavern 250 m below ground levelrough-
ly 2 km from the banks of Loch Ness. This
cavern stands adjacent to a smaller cavern
that contains the main transformer.
The project has been much publicized
and well-receivedQueen Elizabeth her-
self declared it openand SSE is already
considering two new large pumped stor-
age schemes in the Great Glen, plans that
the company is expected to make public in
2011. For those reasonalong with con-
sideration of the UKs frenzied preparation
to meet stringent carbon goalsthe Scot-
tish media are speculating that Glendoe
may just be the beginning of a new era for
hydropower in the Highlands. Some point
to a list of 102 hydropower development
5. Highland hydropower. The 100-MW Glendoe Hydro Scheme near Loch Ness in Scot-
land officially opened in late June. The projects owner, Scottish and Southern Energy, says it has
the highest drop from the reservoir to the turbine of any hydro station in the UK, which allows it
to generate more energy from every cubic meter of water than any other facility in the country.
Courtesy: Scotavia
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GLOBAL MONITOR
projects proposed by a 1946 regional hy-
droelectric board. These ranged greatly in
size, but they encompassed almost every
water course in the region.
Biomass Electricity More
Efficient than Ethanol,
Researchers Say
Biomassplant matter thats grown to
generate energyconverted into elec-
tricity could result in 81% more trans-
portation miles and 108% more emissions
offsets than ethanol, according to U.S.
researchers. In addition, the electricity
option would be twice as effective at re-
ducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The study, published in the May 22 is-
sue of the journal Science, was based on
two criteria: square miles of cropland and
GHG offsets per area (in square miles) of
cropland. In both cases, scientists consid-
ered a range of feedstock crops (corn and
switchgrass) and vehicle types (small car,
midsize car, small SUV, and large SUV).
University of California Merced Assistant
Professor Elliott Campbell, along with Chris-
topher Field of the Carnegie Institutions
Department of Global Ecology and David
Lobell of Stanford University, first looked
at how many miles a range of vehicles
powered by ethanol could travel versus a
range of electric vehicles fueled by electric-
ity. Second, they examined offsets to GHG
emissions for ethanol and bioelectricity.
They also considered land use when
evaluating each method, saying that
globally, the amount of land available to
grow biomass crops is limited. Using ex-
isting croplands for biofuels could cause
increases in food prices and clearing new
land, or deforestation, can have a nega-
tive impact on the environment, they
said in a statement.
The authors are careful to point out
that their study did not examine the per-
formance of electricity and ethanol or oth-
er policy-relevant criteria. We also need
to compare these options for other issues
such as water consumption, air pollution,
and economic costs, Campbell said.
The results suggest that investment
in an ethanol infrastructureeven if the
ethanol is derived from a more-efficient
cellulosic processmay be misguided. In
addition, the study notes that it would be
possible to capture and store carbon diox-
ide emissions from biomass power plants
an option not available for ethanol.
DOE Funds Electrification
of Transportation Sector
On August 5, President Barack Obama an-
nounced that 48 new advanced battery
and electric drive projects will receive $2.4
billion in funding from the Department of
Energy under the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act. The announcement
marks the single largest investment in
advanced battery technology for hybrid
and electric-drive vehicles ever made. DOE
funds will be matched by another $2.4 bil-
lion from the award winners.
Four companies were selected in the
advanced vehicle electrification catego-
ry. The largest amount, $99.8 million, will
go to Electric Transportation Engineering
Corp. (eTec), a subsidiary of ECOtality
Inc., to undertake the largest deployment
of electric vehicles (EVs) and charging in-
frastructure in U.S. history.
In partnership with Nissan North Amer-
ica, eTec will deploy EVs and the charging
infrastructure to support them. The proj-
ect, which will use the Nissan LEAFa ze-
ro-emission electric vehicle, will develop,
implement, and study techniques for opti-
mizing the effectiveness of charging infra-
structure that will support widespread EV
deployment. The project will install elec-
tric vehicle charging infrastructure and
deploy up to 1,000 Nissan battery electric
vehicles in strategic markets in five states:
Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee,
and Washington. To support the Nissan
EV, the project will install approximately
12,500 Level 2 (220 V) charging systems
and 250 Level 3 (fast-charge) systems.
The project will collect and analyze data
to characterize vehicle use in diverse top-
ographic and climatic conditions, evaluate
the effectiveness of charge infrastructure,
and conduct trials of various revenue sys-
tems for commercial and public charge in-
frastructure.
On August 2, Nissan introduced the
LEAF (Figure 6), which the automaker calls
the worlds first affordable, zero-emission
car. Designed specifically for a lithium-
ion battery-powered chassis, the LEAF is
a medium-size hatchback that seats five
adults and has a range of 100 miles. The
car will launch in the U.S. in late 2010.
U.S. production will begin in 2012, at Nis-
sans manufacturing facility in Smyrna,
Tenn. Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn has said
the LEAF will cost about the same as a
gasoline-powered car.
POWER Digest
News items of interest to power industry
professionals.
Hitachi Power Systems to Supply Boil-
er Systems for Meigs County Project.
American Municipal Power (AMP) on
July 13 awarded a contract for the design
and supply of two supercritical, coal-fired
steam-electric generating power blocks to
Hitachi Power Systems America for the
American Municipal Power Generating Sta-
tion (AMPGS) project under development
in Meigs County, Ohio. Each power block
consists of a pulverized coal boiler power-
ing a steam turbine generator and the as-
sociated nitrogen oxide emission control
equipment. The boiler systems will also
utilize Hitachis selective catalytic reduc-
tion technology. The contract was award-
ed following an extensive bid and analysis
process that included AMP staff, Bechtel
6. The electric car, take two. When Nissan rolls out its all-electric LEAF in 2010, it will
become part of the largest test project involving electric vehicles and charging infrastructure.
Courtesy: Nissan
|
September 2009 16
GLOBAL MONITOR
Power (the EPC contractor for the project), R.W. Beck (the proj-
ects owners engineer), and Burns & Roe (an independent con-
sultant reviewing the contract and bid evaluation).
The AMPGS facility will also use Powerspans ECO-SO
2
emis-
sion control technology for the control of sulfur dioxide (SO
2
),
with co-benefits for the control of mercury and particulate mat-
ter. The project will be the first large-scale commercial deploy-
ment of the technology, which, in addition to controlling SO
2

at best available control technology standards, shows promise
for the efficient capture of carbon dioxide (CO
2
) in the future.
Powerspans CO
2
control technology is currently being tested
with a commercial pilot at FirstEnergys R.E. Burger plant in
Shadyside, Ohio.
GLE to Evaluate Laser-Based Uranium Enrichment Technol-
ogy. Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) on July 30 announced the
start-up of a test loop to evaluate the laser-based uranium en-
richment technology that GLE is developing to increase the U.S.
supply of enriched uranium for nuclear power plants worldwide.
GLE, a business venture between GE Hitachi Ltd. and Canadian
uranium producer Cameco, plans to use the test loops results
to determine whether to commercialize laser-based enrichment
technology at a full-scale enrichment facility in Wilmington, N.C.
GLE anticipates gleaning sufficient data from the test loop by the
end of 2009. Start-up of the test loop comes less than a month
after GLE announced it had completed its license application to
the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to build the full-
scale facility. The NRCs estimated 30-month application review
process officially begins once the agency formally dockets, or
accepts, the GLE application.
Acciona Inaugurates 50-MW Parabolic Cylinder Plant in
Spain. Spanish energy firm Acciona in late July inaugurated a
50-MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in Alvarado, Spain.
The 236 million plant uses parabolic cylinder technologythe
same as Accionas Nevadas Solar One CSP plant, which has been
in operation since June 2007. The Alvarado I CSP plant covers
more than 130 hectares. Solar energy is reflected by 184,320 mir-
rors aligned in rows to 768 solar collectors with a total length of
around 75 km. Construction of the plant began in February 2008
and involved shifting more than a million cubic meters of earth.
An average of 350 people worked throughout the 18-month con-
struction period. A team of 31 will make up the plants operation
and maintenance team.
Fluor Corp. to Conduct FEED Work for Scottish and South-
ern Plant in England. Fluor Corp. on July 21 said it had been
selected to conduct front-end engineering and design (FEED)
work for a nitrogen oxide reduction program at the Fiddlers Ferry
Power Station in Warrington, Cheshire, England. Fluor is currently
performing preliminary engineering and construction planning
services for selective catalytic reduction of emissions at Scottish
and Southern Energys (SSE) four-unit coal-fired power plant as
well as providing client technical support and project cost esti-
mation. Fluor began a feasibility study in late 2008; FEED work
is expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2009.
SSE is competitively bidding the EPC contract for this clean air
initiative.
Wrtsil Wins Power Plant Orders from Greece and Cyprus.
Wrtsil on July 20 said it won 40 million in separate orders
to supply power generation equipment to the island of Lesvos,
Greece, and to Cyprus from the Greek state-owned Public Power
Corp. The contracts, representing a total of 72 MW, are for an
extension to an existing power plant, with the extra 22 MW ca-
pacity needed to meet the huge increase in demand that occurs
during the tourist season. In addition, the Electricity Authority
of Cyprus (EAC), a public utility, has ordered a power plant with
three Wrtsil 18V46 engines, with a capacity of 50 MW. The
new plant is located in Dhekelia, near the town of Larnaca, in
Cyprus
SCE&E Picks Shaw, Westinghouse for Nuclear Plant Main-
tenance and Engineering. The South Carolina Electric & Gas
Co. (SCE&G), the principal subsidiary of SCANA Corp., on July
28 awarded the Shaw Groups power group and Westinghouse
Electric Co. a long-term alliance contract. The group will provide
nuclear maintenance, modification, refueling outage, and design
engineering services to SCANAs V.C. Summer Nuclear Station Unit
1, in Jenkinsville, S.C. The contract is an extension of the rela-
tionship established by Shaw and Westinghouse to provide EPC
services for two new AP1000 nuclear power unitsV.C. Summer
Units 2 and 3, operated by SCE&G and the South Carolina Public
Service Authority (Santee Cooper).
UK Government Grants Vestas 6 Million for Wind Energy
R&D. The UKs Department of Energy and Climate Change on July
27 said Danish wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems would
be granted over 6 million for research and development work on
the Isle of Wight. The grant is made under the UK governments
1 billion program to set up onshore wind farms in the next three
years. More than 3 million of Vestass total grant will come from
the South East England Development Agency. The sum will be
paid out to the unit Vestas Technology UK Ltd., which runs an
R&D center on the Isle of Wight. The Danish company will receive
the subsidy despite its decision to close its wind-blade factory
on the small island, which generated large media attention and
protests against more than 600 job losses there.
By Sonal Patel, POWERs senior writer.
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|
September 2009 18
FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M FOCUS ON O&M
FOCUS ON O&M
WATER TREATMENT
Avoid These 10 Mistakes
When Selecting Your New
Water Treatment System
There are a number of reasons why your
plant might be looking at new water pre-
treatment equipment in the near future.
One common reason is the addition of
new generating capacity. For many utili-
ties, adding generation to an existing site
has proven to be far simpler than obtain-
ing the permits for a greenfield site. The
added generation might be in the form of
simple-cycle combustion turbines for peak
power demands (see pp. 26 and 30 for
examples) or a high-efficiency combined-
cycle power plant. Regardless of the type
of new generation, you can be sure that
it will require additional high-purity water
for processes ranging from direct steam
generation to power augmentation, NO
x

control, and washing the blades of the
combustion turbines.
Another reason to consider new water
pretreatment equipment is that plant staff
are finding existing ion exchange units
are becoming increasingly difficult to
maintain and expensive to operate. These
problems may be compounded by a plant
water supply that has changed since the
water treatment equipment was originally
specified. Typically, the current water sup-
ply may have higher levels of suspended
solids and dissolved solids than the equip-
ment was originally designed to handle.
Reverse osmosis (RO) systems have be-
come a favorite in more and more installa-
tions and are being successfully used with
some very poor quality (high-turbidity,
high-salt, high-organic) waters. The major
equipment companies continue to improve
RO and ultrafiltration (UF) systems, increas-
ing the water production rates and reduc-
ing the equipment footprint (Figure 1).
If you are in the market for a water
treatment system retrofit or upgrade, or
perhaps are preparing specifications for a
new water treatment plant, it pays to learn
from others mistakes. Here is my Top 10
list of design mistakes made when new wa-
ter treatment equipment is specified.
1. Improperly specifying or characteriz-
ing the makeup water to the equipment
particularly the silt density index (SDI)
on an RO. I cant overemphasize the im-
portance of properly characterizing the
incoming water supply before preparing
equipment specifications. Take multiple
samples, at different times of the year
and under various operating conditions.
Remember to measure the temperature
of the water and total suspended solids
(TSS), or, better yet, SDI on each sample.
2. Failing to match the product water
with the need. Not every piece of power
plant equipment requires 18 M (0.56
S/cm) water with <10 ppb silica. Water
used in a combustion turbine for NO
x
con-
trol only needs to have a conductivity of
>10M (<1 S/cm) and can tolerate up to
100 ppb of silica. Dont clean up the water
more than is necessary.
3. Assuming that the equipment sup-
plier knows best. There is no such thing as
turnkey. Plant personnel (engineering,
operations, and maintenance) need to
stay involved throughout the design and
construction processes and particularly
during the installation and commissioning
process.
4. Pushing the flux rate (or any other
design parameter). RO membrane speci-
fications have a recommended flux rate
(gallons of permeate per square foot of
available membrane surface area per day,
or gfd). But this flux rate varies by the type
and temperature of the water. The higher
the operating flux rate, the higher the risk
of fouling the membranes and the more
often you will be cleaning them (Figure
2). Be conservative. Use the lower end of
the recommended flux rate for your water
source. Be sure to consider the flux rate at
the lowest water temperature you are likely
to encounter. A free software package for
designing an RO system can be download-
ed from the Dow website (www.dow.com
/liquidseps/design/rosa.htm). Version 7 of
the ROSA software was recently released. It
is simple to use and produces a wealth of
design information. Whether you are actu-
ally doing the design or simply trying to
evaluate a number of design bids, the soft-
ware can be very helpful.
5. Undersizing RO pretreatment systems
such as UF, media, or carbon filtration.
High turbidity or a cold snap can cripple
the water treatment equipment ahead of
the RO or ion exchange. Put in extra ca-
pacity to handle water that feeds the RO
and ion exchange systems so that this is
never the water production bottleneck.
6. Relying solely on the 5-micron filters
to remove TSS. The 5-micron filters that
are commonly placed in front of an RO
may be adequate for a well water source
with little or no TSS, but they cannot be
expected to reduce the SDI of the water
and do the job of a UF skid. If you are
going to put a surface water source into
an RO, you will need UF and perhaps mul-
timedia filters ahead of the UF.
7. Improperly sizing pumps, particularly
the RO booster pumps. The RO feedpumps
are an expensive and critical part of the
RO skid. Be sure you have sufficient pump
for the required feed flow, especially at the
coldest water temperature you anticipate.
8. Not putting a buffer or surge tank be-
tween the RO and any subsequent treatment.
Reverse osmosis equipment is designed for
and runs best at a constant feedwater flow
rate. Putting a properly sized RO perme-
1. Design changes. Dow claims that
its new UF membranes can reduce the water
treatment equipment footprint by 33%. Cour-
tesy: Dow Water and Process Solutions
2. Improved membrane perfor-
mance and longevity. The newest
reverse osmosis membrane offering from
Dow is the BW30HR-440i, which has higher
production and decreased fouling potential.
Courtesy: Dow Water and Process Solutions
NV Energy Tracy Station celebration luncheon for
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accidents.
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September 2009 20
FOCUS ON O&M
ate tank before any downstream treatment
equipment gives you a buffer.
9. Poorly integrating existing and new
equipment. If you want to keep that mixed
bed or existing ion exchange equipment
with the new UF/RO system, you will want
to spend some time thinking about how
the old and new equipment will efficiently
work together. Will there be two separate
control panels or a single human-machine
interface for both systems? What protec-
tion is needed to ensure that one piece
of equipment cant damage the others? In
some cases this will require a complete
overhaul of your existing programmable
logic controller, which can be expensive
and time-consuming.
10. Thinking that the equipment will
run itself. Forget the sales pitchmod-
ern water treatment systems still require
trained operations and maintenance per-
sonnel to keep the equipment operating
properly. Operators must also be knowl-
edgeable about how the equipment works
and how to identify common problems.
It only takes a few hours without the
scale-inhibitor chemical to irreparably
foul membranes. Training will also teach
personnel how to trend equipment pres-
sures, flow rates, and conductivity to
anticipate the need to clean the mem-
branes, for example. This saves costly
membrane replacement. Both RO and
ion exchange systems require handling
chemicals, so personnel must be properly
trained to handle them safely. Regen-
eration of ion exchange equipment is a
particularly critical time; you are often
one valve away from disaster. There are
a number of excellent schools for water
treatment equipment operators. Training
is a small investment with a big return.
Many thanks to Jim Summerfield, se-
nior technical specialist for Dow Water and
Process Solutions, and Mike Jenkins, vice
president sales and applications, Progres-
sive Water Treatment Inc., for their kind as-
sistance in the preparation of this article.
Contributed by David G. Daniels
(david_daniels@mmengineering.com),
principal scientist for M&M Engineering
Associates Inc. and a POWER
contributing editor.
Accurate Online
Silica Analyzers Ensure
Boiler Performance,
Add Boiler Life
Plant engineers are adept at managing
and maintaining aged equipment at the
800-MW Michoud power station, located
10 miles east of New Orleans (Figure 3).
From November 2006 to November 2007,
the generating stations two units were off
line less than 116 hours. Michoud Unit 2
operated 6,770 service hours, and its Unit
3 provided an exceptional 6,946 hours of
service.
One key area at the plant where O&M ex-
cellence is evident is in maintaining plant
water quality to avoid boiler tube leaks and
other problems that can occur when using
water that is outside of specification. Dur-
ing the same 20062007 time period, the
45-year-old Michoud Unit 2 experienced
only two boiler tube leaks. Michoud Unit
3, which is 41 years old, had no leaks.
Protecting boiler and turbine compo-
nents from repairs and unscheduled down-
time is critical, says Vinny Gagliano,
water environmental technician for Enter-
gy New Orleans, the subsidiary of Entergy
Corp. that owns and operates the plant.
Good sampling, monitoring, and analysis
of the steam-water cycle is essential for
this, and one of the things we monitor
very closely is silica.
Subpar water quality can endanger
boiler tubes and piping by promoting
corrosion, scaling, and fouling. At high
temperatures, water contaminants such
as silica can volatilize in the steam and
deposit on the turbines or piping. Control-
ling silica helps avoid scaling and other
detrimental effects in boilers, drums, heat
exchangers, and condensers, where im-
paired heat transfer efficiency could ulti-
mately impair production efficiency.
We want to hold silica to very low
levels because we dont want it to carry
over to the turbine blades, Gagliano
says. Deposition on turbine blades from
silica carryover in steam can result in in-
efficient and imbalanced spinning as well
as thrown blades that directly reduce the
plants power output and revenue. Water
moving through our boilers, especially
our supercritical boiler, must be extremely
high quality, since it affects both perfor-
mance and overall boiler life.
Monitoring Silica Levels
Michoud operates two natural gasburn-
ing units, backed up with No. 6 fuel oil.
Michoud Unit 2, a drum boiler, generates
2 million lb/hr of steam yielding 250 MW.
Michoud Unit 3, a supercritical boiler, pro-
vides 550 MW. Well water supplying both
units first enters a reverse osmosis (RO)
system consisting of 12 20-micron filters.
After RO, boiler make-up water is pumped
to the plants demineralizers.
When anion demineralizers or mixed-
bed polishers approach exhaustion, silica
is the first impurity to break through. Four
online Hach Series 5000 Silica Analyzers
were installed to provide sensitive checks
of demineralizer performance at strategic
locations and to identify the earliest signs
of contaminant breakthrough (Figure 4).
The plant also takes online conductivity
measurement in the feedwater and steam
loops to assess water and steam purity;
however, Gagliano says the plants first
line of defense from impurity breakthrough
is the silica analyzers.
The analyzers detect rising levels of
silica far sooner than an increase in con-
ductivity. Dissolved silica gets weakly ion-
ized and is often difficult to detect by
conductivity measurement. By detecting
dissolved silica quickly (within 8.8 to 15
minutes) and at a low detection limit (0.5
3. Prime performer. Plant engineers are adept at managing and maintaining aged equip-
ment at the 800-MW Michoud power station, located 10 miles east of New Orleans. From
November 2006 to November 2007, the generating stations two units were off line less than
116 hours. Michoud Unit 2 operated 6,770 service hours, and its Unit 3 provided an exceptional
6,946 hours of service. Courtesy: Hach Co.
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P E O P L E P R O C E S S E S T E C H N O L O G Y
The system allows us to respond quickly to changes in component

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September 2009 22
FOCUS ON O&M
g/L), the silica analyzers provide us with
an early warning that a demineralizer is
nearly exhausted, Gagliano says.
Accurate Online Silica Measurement
The Hach Series 5000 Silica Analyzer relies
on the silicomolybdate/heteropoly blue
method of colorimetric detection at 810
nm, using an internal reference cell to
compare with sample measurements. Silica
concentration is calculated based on the
difference between the two measurements
and is shown in g/L. Any bias caused by
turbidity or sample color is eliminated with
continuous auto-zero for each sample.
The analyzer uses a pressurized reagent
delivery system that makes a peristaltic
pump unnecessary. With the reagent cham-
ber pressurized, reagents are automati-
cally supplied to a set of solenoid valves,
which release reagents during each cycle
in precisely controlled volumes, ensuring
accurate analysis. The analyzer provides
a digital display of concentration and is
auto-calibrating.
Its helpful that the unit is self-con-
tained and has no moveable parts, Ga-
gliano says. Because its electronic, we
only need air pressure to get the bubbles
out of the sample. We used to use another
type of silica analyzer that had a small
pump to pump out the bubbles, but the
tube would continually crack. We havent
had any problem with these analyzers.
Boiler Make-up: System Overview
In Unit 3, the water is first pumped into
cation and anion vessels. The first silica
analyzer is located at the anion tank dis-
charge. The water then proceeds to a large
mixed-bed column, where a second silica
analyzer monitors the effluent.
Catching silica breakthrough at the
anion tank helps preserve the mix bed
4. Squeaky clean water. When anion demineralizers or mixed-bed polishers approach
exhaustion, silica is the first impurity to break through. Four online Hach Series 5000 Silica
Analyzers were installed at the Michoud plant to provide sensitive checks of demineralizer per-
formance at strategic locations and identify the earliest signs of contaminant breakthrough.
Courtesy: Hach Co.
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FOCUS ON O&M
longer, Gagliano says. Our silica limit on
the anion discharge is 20 ppb, although
we like to keep it between 4 and 5 ppb.
When the silica levels start breaking, it
might take an hour or two and then it
breaks out fast. Once that starts to hap-
pen, we need to take the anion bed out of
service and regenerate it. When the silica
starts breaking in the bed it may be 5 ppb,
but in a matter of a few hours it might be
30 ppb. Once it exceeds 10 ppb, however,
the analyzer sends an alarm.
The silica limit on the mixed-bed pol-
isher is 10 ppb, but it usually runs 4 to 5
ppb. The plant keeps the conductivity on
the mixed beds at <0.1 S/cm.
Following the mixed bed, make-up wa-
ter is stored in an 800,000-gallon tank.
Make-up water for the Unit 3 supercritical
boiler has to be high-purity deionized wa-
ter with virtually complete removal of im-
purities such as silica. A third online silica
analyzer monitors the boiler condensate.
Water quality for the boiler drum in
Michoud Unit 2 is not as stringent as
that required for the Unit 3 supercritical
boiler. A third silica analyzer monitors the
boiler drum condensate. Here, the plant
maintains a silica limit of 300 ppb, but
Gagliano says the plant actually runs it at
around 25 to 35 ppb to avoid silica depo-
sition on the turbine blades.
An online Hach 5000 Phosphate Analyz-
er is also installed to monitor boiler drum
condensate. We want to keep phosphate
around 5 to 10 ppb, depending on how
many megawatts we have, Gagliano says.
The more megawatts we generate, the more
phosphate we need. The analyzer confirms
that our target levels are being met.
Maintaining Instrumentation
The Michoud plant entered into a field
service partnership with Hach, whereby
the instrument manufacturer takes care of
everything regarding the plants silica and
phosphate analyzers, including all parts,
labor, and travel. Technicians come to the
plant twice a year to perform preventative
maintenance. The arrangement includes
priority emergency field repair at no ad-
ditional cost.
Gagliano says the service partnership
with Hach has been a big plus. Like a
lot of power plants these days along the
Gulf Coast, were operating with a lot less
manpower. The service program is a valu-
able time-saver for us.
Under the program, preventive mainte-
nance is conducted on the analyzers ac-
cording to standard factory recommended
schedules, with calibration and certifica-
tion of the instruments performed on every
visit. With the continued success of this ar-
rangement at the Michoud generation sta-
tion, management recently added a Hach
field service partnership to ensure service
to 10 Hach Series 5000 analyzers at the En-
ergy New Orleans Nine Mile Plant.
Having the analyzers routinely ser-
viced is one less thing that we have to do,
so we can focus on our job of generating
power, Gagliano says.
Quick, Accurate Sampling Data
With power plant personnel reduced in ar-
eas such as water chemistry analysis, time
saved performing one task allows generat-
ing stations more time to get other things
done. Controlling impurities in boiler
make-up water has enabled Michoud per-
sonnel to keep operating costs low and
efficiency high.
Operating decisions still rely just as
heavily on water and steam chemistry in-
formation, but now theres a heavy empha-
sis on obtaining quick, accurate sampling
data, Gagliano says. Our online analyz-
ers are helping us do that.
Contributed by Andres Meza, Hach Co.
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September 2009 24
LEGAL & REGULATORY
SWEPCOs Construction
Conundrum
By Angela Neville, JD
I
f you build it, they will comethe litigants, that is.
The lawsuit involving the construction of Southwestern
Electric Power Co.s (SWEPCO) John W. Turk Jr. ultrasuper-
critical coal-fired power plant in Arkansas gives new meaning to
that popular quote from the movie Field of Dreams.
Legal Background
In November 2008, SWEPCO, a subsidiary of American Electric
Power, began building a power plant in Hempstead County,
about 15 miles northeast of Texarkana. The plant is designed
to bring generation and related transmission improvements
to southwest Arkansas. The 600-MW coal-fueled plant also is
intended to provide baseload power to SWEPCO customers in
Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Classified as ultrasupercritical,
the Turk plant requires less coal than other technologies per
megawatt-hour, leading to lower emissions of CO
2
and mercury,
higher efficiency, and lower fuel costs per megawatt-hour gen-
erated. (See the July 2009 POWER special report on this tech-
nology for details.)
Before it began construction, SWEPCO had cleared a number of
required regulatory hurdles. However, several local private hunt-
ing groups and landowners, including the Hempstead County
Hunting Club (HCHC), opposed construction of the plant because
of concerns about it releasing air pollutants. On May 9, 2008,
the HCHC filed a citizens suit against SWEPCO pursuant to the
Clean Air Act (CAA), seeking to prevent SWEPCO from building
the plant without first obtaining a prevention of significant de-
terioration permit under the CAA.
On June 24, 2009, the Arkansas Court of Appeals overturned
the Arkansas Public Service Commissions (APSC) decision to
grant a certificate of environmental compatibility and public
need (CECPN) for construction of the Turk plant. The CECPN is
legal authorization granted by Arkansas to a regulated util-
ity to construct a power plant or transmission facilities and
is only issued after public and formal review by the state and
interested stakeholders. The ruling found in favor of the plants
opponents.
The appellate ruling is based upon a literal application of
the wording of a state statute. The court agreed with private
hunting clubs and landowners that a key issue is the wording
of Arkansas Code Annotated 23-18-502, commonly known as
the Utility Statute.
The court said the APSC violated the single proceeding lan-
guage of the statute by conducting a separate docket for SWEPCOs
application to build the Turk plant and separate dockets for con-
struction of transmission lines, instead of resolving all matters
related to the plant in a single proceeding.
Most of the opinion addressed procedural issues; however, the
appellate court also dealt with the issue of the failure of SWEPCOs
application to adequately address alternative locations for the pro-
posed Turk plant. The opinion stated that SWEPCO failed to adhere
to the statutory requirement to detail the comparative pros and
cons of each potential location.
Reaction to Appellate Courts Decision
On June 29, SWEPCO filed an appeal with the Arkansas Supreme
Court, saying that the Court of Appeals had erroneously reversed
the APSC based on an incorrect construction of the Act and that
the ruling abandons 150 years of final-order precedent. For
the near term, SWEPCO is continuing construction of the $1.6
billion plant.
Paul Chodak, SWEPCO president and COO, said, By law, the
CECPN issued by the APSC remains in effect during the appeal
process. The APSC approval was overturned because the court ob-
jected to the approval procedure and not because the judges ob-
jected to the Turk plant. We believe the plant holds the best future
for long-term reliability and affordable power for our customers.
Approximately $713 million has already been spent on plant
construction, and a total of $1.3 billion has been committed. It
would cost even more to stop construction and then restart it,
Chodak said.
In July, Scott McCloud, SWEPCO corporate communications
representative, told POWER that SWEPCO and the APSC intend
to file their briefs with the Arkansas Supreme Court by Septem-
ber 11. The Supreme Court took a recess from mid-July through
Labor Day. McCloud expects the Supreme Court to announce its
decision related to granting SWEPCOs request for review some
time in September.
Looking Ahead
If the Arkansas Supreme Court upholds the appellate courts
decision, the ruling will promote strong uncertainty about the
reliability of the permitting system because SWEPCO will be obli-
gated to restart the permitting process with the APSC. The case
also could have long-term policy implications for utilities that
build power plants and generate electricity in Arkansas.
Reacting to the appellate courts decision, APSC Chairman Paul
Suskie said the APSC panel had used the same procedures for
considering power plants in separate proceedings since 1973.
As it stands now, the Court of Appeals decision will impact
the siting of all future generating plants subject to the com-
mission, whether these plants generate electricity from nuclear,
natural gas, coal, wind, solar, hydro, biomass, geothermal or
other renewable power sources, Suskie said.
The U.S. electric generation industry needs sensible and pre-
dictable permitting procedures for utilities that balance energy
needs with protecting our natural resources. At this point in
time, coal-fired power plants that use the most advanced avail-
able control technology to reduce harmful air emissions and
damage to the environment are a necessary part of meeting this
countrys growing energy needs.
Angela Neville, JD, is POWERs senior editor.
|
September 2009 26
TOP PLANTS
Edward W. Clark
Generating Station,
Clark County, Nevada
Owner/operator: NV Energy Inc.
The Edward W. Clark Generating Station, which has supplied electricity to
the Las Vegas Strip for more than half a century, has learned the se-
cret of life in the desert: adaptability. The plants early years featured
conventional steam plants operated around the clock. By mid-life, Clark
had been upgraded with two combustion turbine combined-cycle pow-
er blocks operated as intermediate-load resource. Today, the old steam
plants have been replaced with fast-start peaking gas turbines.
By Dr. Robert Peltier, PE
N
V Energys Edward W. Clark Gen-
erating Station, located a few miles
south of the Las Vegas Strip, is a
case study of how the power industry has
evolved over the past half-century. Until
Clark was built as Nevada Powers first
power plant, Hoover Dam was the compa-
nys sole source of electricity. The first unit
was built at Clark in 1955, the same year
that the Riviera Hotel became the Strips
first high-riseat nine stories. That first 70-
MW unit was soon joined by two additional
units that increased the plants rating to 175
MW, enough to supply the 100,000 resi-
dents of the entire Las Vegas Valley.
Today, the Las Vegas Valleys population
has eclipsed 1.4 million residents, and NV
Energyformed by the merger of Nevada
Power, Sierra Pacific Power, and Sierra Pacific
Resources in 1999 (the two operating com-
panies changed their names to NV Energy in
2008)serves 2.4 million Nevadans. Then-
Sierra Pacific Resources 541-MW Tracy
Combined Cycle Plant, located east of Reno,
1. Down in the desert. NV Energys Edward W. Clark Generating Station has provided electricity to Las Vegas for more than 50 years.
Early gas-fired steam plants have given way to combustion turbine combined cycles and peaker units today. Clark now has 19 separate genera-
tors with a total summer peak capacity of 1,102 MW. Courtesy: NV Energy
Rough Made Easy.
Power plants are among the largest and most complex engineering and construction
projects in the world. Thats why customers turn to Bechtel when they need more power.
For over 60 years, weve been providing governments and utilities with power facilities
delivered on time and within budget. Weve led the industry in every major sector, from
fossil fuels to nuclear. We set the pace for clean and efcient power generation, exploring
renewable energy like carbon capture, solar, geothermal and biomass, so our customers
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San Francisco
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|
September 2009 28
TOP PLANTS
was selected as a 2008 POWER Top Plant in
recognition of its construction as the first new
power plant built in northern Nevada in 24
years and for reducing expensive out-of-state
power purchases.
NV Energy has doubled its company-
owned generation since 2006, pushing its
peak demand from about 2,500 MW to
about 5,700 MW in 2008. The coincident
peak demand on its system in 2008 was
7,152 MW, with the difference made up by
contract power purchases. The planning re-
serve margin for southern Nevada is 12%.
Clarks Evolution
Clark was originally constructed in the
middle of the open desert when Las Vegas
scarcely dented the skyline (Figure 1, p.
26). Today, the plant is a strategically locat-
ed grid entry point surrounded by homes,
freeways, and industrial neighbors and is
the epicenter of one of the fastest growing
service territories in the nation. Its also the
hub of the energy distribution system that
routes about 1,000 MW to Las Vegas to
keep the Strip lit up, day and night. The sta-
tion now also provides voltage support and
spinning fast-start reserves for the region.
In the late 1970s, four Westinghouse
501B3 combustion turbines were installed.
They were later upgraded to the B5 model,
followed by another upgrade to the 501B6
configuration that featured coated turbine
blades and an increased nameplate rating.
The four combustion turbines were subse-
quently transformed into two 2 x 1 power
blocks when heat-recovery steam genera-
tors (HRSGs) and steam turbines were add-
ed during 19931994 (Figure 2). When
those upgrades were completed, the plant
was dispatched as an intermediate-load
plant rather than as just a peaking plant, as
it had been in its pre-combined-cycle days.
Each power block operates at a baseload
efficiency of 8,800 Btu/kWh and often oper-
ates in load-following mode at night. For addi-
tional flexibility, stack bypass dampers allow
the combustion turbines to run in simple-cycle
mode when an HRSG or steam turbine is un-
available. Another 54-MW combustion tur-
bine, installed in 1973, also stands ready for
peaking service, when necessary.
A tussle with the Environmental Protec-
tion Agency over New Source Review is-
sues regarding the B6 upgrades led to an
agreement that prompted NV Energy to fur-
ther upgrade the four combustion turbines.
NV Energy contracted with Power System
Manufacturing to install that companys
LEC III technology, the equivalent of a dry
low-NO
x
system, to further reduce emis-
sions from the four turbines. The upgrades
took a year to install. The project, complet-
ed in 2008, included complete replacement
of the combustion system with a redesigned
combustor featuring optimized primary and
secondary fuel injection nozzles that ensure
100% premixing of fuel and air, a more ef-
fective premixer, precision flow controls,
and enhanced cooling techniques.
Notably, the improved premixing does
more than just reduce the average combus-
tion zone temperature and therefore the
turbines NO
x
output. It also lowers the
turbines CO emissions and limits the com-
bustion noise that can damage an engine
when its operating under very fuel-lean
conditions. After the upgrades were com-
pleted, tests confirmed that the LEC III
upgrade reduced emissions to 5 ppm NO
x

and 10 ppm CO, a significant drop from the
stock 501B6 levels that produced around
90 ppm NO
x
. Today, the two power blocks
have a combined summer peak capacity of
460 MW.
New Renewable Challenges
NV Energy has been progressively add-
ing renewable energy to its portfolio since
it signed its first power purchase contract
for geothermal energy in 1983. Today, NV
Energy receives electricity from 27 differ-
ent plants fired by a range of renewable en-
ergy sources, including geothermal, solar,
hydro, and biofuels. The 64-MW Nevada
Solar One (a POWER Top Plant profiled
in the December 2007 issue) is surely the
most notable of the new renewable projects
connected to the NV Energy grid. NV En-
ergy is one of the few U.S. utilities that can
brag that it is meeting its states renewable
portfolio standard (RPS) goals. In 2008,
9% of NV Energys sold capacity was sup-
plied from renewable sources.
Preparing for the future, NV Energy
recently signed a memorandum of under-
standing for the purchase of electricity
from a 250-MW solar energy plant with
energy storage located in southern Nevada.
The company is also actively developing a
number of other renewable projects to meet
Nevadas mandated RPS targets (which the
company has pledged to meet) of 12% of
retail sales coming from renewable resourc-
es in 20092010, 15% in 20112012, 18%
in 20132014, 20% in 20152019, 22% in
20202024, and 25% by 2025. NV Energy
is also codeveloping a 200-MW wind proj-
ect on the Idaho border.
NV Energys grid may be capable of ab-
sorbing relatively large quantities of dispa-
rate renewable energy sources, but the pace
and location of the additions, many of them
nondispatchable, has been a challenge. An-
other challenge the company has always
faced: The late afternoon peak load (air
conditioning) is often twice the nighttime
minimum load. By 2006, NV Energy de-
cided that a centrally located and efficient
peaking power plant was vital to a reliable
and nimble power grid. All eyes immedi-
ately turned to Clark once again.
The Next Generation
Construction activity at Clark had slowed
after the combined-cycle plants entered
service, but activity resumed in 2007. The
first order of business was demolition of
the three original steam units that had been
mothballed years earlier to make room for a
dozen new peaking combustion turbines.
Twelve Pratt & Whitney SwitftPac pack-
ages, each configured with two FT8 aero-
derivative combustion turbines coupled to
opposite ends of a double-ended generator,
were installed during 2008 and early 2009
(Figure 3). Each SwiftPac package is rated
at approximately 60 MW at standard con-
ditions, which certainly dont apply to the
2. First came the combined cycles. Westinghouse 501B6 combustion turbines,
originally installed as peakers in the late 1970s, became intermediate-load units when they
were upgraded to a combined-cycle configuration in 19931994. The two power blocks, each
a 2 x 1 combined cycle, today produce 460 MW during the hot summer months. Courtesy:
NV Energy
September 2009
|
TOP PLANTS
Las Vegas area. NV Energy rates the total
output of the 24 combustion turbines during
the summer at 624 MW, or about 52 MW
each for dispatch purposes. The heat rate of
a SwiftPac is a touch under 9,600 Btu/kWh
at site conditions. Inlet fogging is also used
to increase power and flatten out the effi-
ciency curve on hot days.
Today, the entire Clark Generating Sta-
tion features 19 units with a summer peak
rating of 1,102 MW, effectively doubling
the site rating from just five years ago while
cutting total site emissions in half.
First Responder
A peaking plant must be quick to respond
when called upon to immediately quell a
grid emergency and must be capable of tam-
ing an unexpectedly high peak load on a hot
summer day. The 12 SwiftPacs can put more
than 600 MW on the grid in about the time
it takes me to lose $20 at the nickel slots6
minutes to synchronize and 8.5 minutes to
reach rated power. The peakers also operate
with a tiny emissions footprint by using wa-
ter injection to reduce NO
x
emissions and a
selective catalytic reduction system to scrub
the exhaust to 5 ppm NO
x
and 2 ppm CO at
only 5 ppm of ammonia slip.
The 12 SwiftPacs are arranged in three
identical 208-MW load blocks. Block 1
entered commercial service in time for the
summer 2008 peak; Block 2 followed in No-
vember 2008; Block 3 was added to the dis-
patch list in time to meet this years summer
peak. Today, plant operators are kept very
busy with one or more blocks of SwiftPac
peaking power added to the grid for at least
4 to 6 hours daily to meet the evening peak
energy demand. SwiftPac starting reliability
has been almost perfect; only twice has a tur-
bine failed to start out of hundreds of starts.
The SwiftPac peakers operate at about a
10% capacity factor, allowing the operation
and maintenance (O&M) staff to equalize
the wear and tear on them by periodically
rotating the lead unit to equalize operating
hours and unit starts. The first engine major
inspection interval is 25,000 hours, so it will
be several years before the first engine over-
haul will be required.
Tight Teamwork
The operating tempo at Clark has markedly
increased with the addition of the Swift-
Pacs and the cycling of the combined-cycle
plants. Now the plants staff of 40four
operators and a supervisor per shiftmust
juggle the starts and stops of as many as 19
separate generators in a single day, depend-
ing on the system load demand. Thats a far
cry from just three years ago, when the same
size staff handled just the combined-cycle
plants, which werent necessarily cycled
daily. Today, every unit at Clark is a peaker
that may be called to action at a moments
notice. In addition, Clarks O&M staff has
responsibility for the 501B2 combustion
turbine and another aging gas-fired steam
plant at the nearby Sunrise Station.
Clark has undergone multiple makeovers
during its long life, but perhaps the plants
most notable accomplishment is its current
safety record. There has not been a single
lost-time accident over the past 15 years,
covering 2.8 million man-hours. The plant
has also just finished its third year without
an OSHA recordable injury. Given the num-
ber and variety of contractors, suppliers,
and company employees who have worked
on so many upgrade and new construction
projects over the years, this is truly a re-
markable achievement.
I doubt that anyone knows what Clarks
next evolutionary change will be, but I am
sure that whatever new challenges NV En-
ergy faces in the future, somehow Clark will
play a critical role in their solution.
Dr. Robert Peltier, PE is POWERs
editor-in-chief.
3. Next came the peakers. Twenty-four quick-starting simple-cycle combustion turbines totaling 624 MW were installed from 2008
to 2009 to provide peaking energy to the NV Energy grid. Courtesy: NV Energy
|
September 2009 30
TOP PLANTS
Goodman Energy Center,
Hays, Kansas
Owner/operator: Midwest Energy Inc.
Midwest Energy has a history of thinking and acting independently, especial-
ly since breaking away from the Rural Utilities Service almost 15 years
ago. Two years ago, when its board of directors grappled with finding
a balance between purchasing and generating electricity, it decided to
construct its first power plant in 37 years. A matched set of nine 8.4-MW
gas engines at Goodman Energy Center now provides efficient peaking
electricity, improved overall system reliability, and backstop capacity for
a 325-MW electrical system that features 16% wind power generation.
H
ays, located near the western edge
of the Great Plains, is the largest city
in northwest Kansas. Winters can be
bitterly cold for the 20,000 residents, and
summer temperatures routinely climb above
100F. Headquartered in Hays is Midwest En-
ergy Inc. (MWE), formerly known as Cen-
tral Kansas Electric Cooperative. MWE, an
independent rural electric cooperative, serves
nearly 48,000 electricity customers scattered
across 41 counties in central and western
Kansas. As is the case with many coopera-
tives, MWE did not own power generating
equipment but provided electricity to its cus-
tomers that was purchased through long-term
capacity and peaking load contracts.
MWE broke away from the Rural Utili-
ties Service (successor to the Rural Elec-
trification Administration) in 1995 after
privately refinancing its debt. A key reason
the company elected to go it alone was man-
agements belief that MWE must have a
more entrepreneurial spirit if it was to take
advantage of the many potential market op-
portunities that would otherwise be off lim-
its. MWE has since added tens of thousands
of customers and is now one of the largest
natural gas cooperatives in the nation. How-
ever, with independence comes the increased
responsibility to provide reasonably priced
and reliable electricity for customers.
Integrated Planning Process
MWEs planning process for long-term
electricity resources is encapsulated in its
triannual long-range resource plan, which
is required by the Department of Energy
and the Western Area Power Administra-
tion, which manages the regions electric-
ity market. The companys Risk Integrated
Resource Plan (RIRP) examined the range
of electricity supply options available and
then considered those options in light of
its key business objectives of rate stability,
supply reliability, competitive rates, and
corporate financial strength. These objec-
tives then guide the selection of a combi-
nation of long-term fixed-price electricity
purchases and purchases from the unpre-
dictable spot market.
The 2007 RIRP update concluded that the
prudent approach was a combination of two
long-term baseload purchase contracts of
75 MW each and construction of a 75-MW
block of peaking capacity. Gary Groninger,
senior project manager at Burns & McDon-
nell, who supported MWE in development
of its RIRP, said, our analysis continued to
show that these reciprocating engines were
an excellent fit in meeting MWEs needs
particularly with wind as a part of their
generating portfolio. These engines have an
excellent baseload heat rate and show very
little degradation in efficiency even at a 50%
load level. We expect MWE to operate these
units more than 1,500 hours per year.
MWEs 2008 annual report notes that the
company signed a contract that year to take
an additional 24 MW of wind energy from
the Smoky Hills Wind Farm in Ellsworth
and Lincoln Counties. By the end of 2009,
MWE will be purchasing 49 MW of wind
energy from the Smoky Hills Wind Farm.
Wind energy will then constitute over 16%
of MWEs retail peak load, the highest per-
centage among Kansas electric utilities.
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
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September 2009 32
TOP PLANTS
First New Plant in 37 Years
MWE selected Kansas Citybased Burns
& McDonnell in March 2007 to provide
engineering design, procurement, and con-
struction services for the Goodman Energy
Center (GEC). The plant is named for Mr.
Jack Goodman, general manager of Mid-
west Energy and its predecessor company,
Central Kansas Electric Cooperative, from
1951 to 1992. Earnie Lehman, Midwest
Energys president and general manager,
paid tribute to the plants namesake when
announcing the project: Our Board and
employees could think of no more fitting
honor for Mr. Goodman, who created Mid-
west 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 MWEs 325-MW total sys-
tem demand and backup power supply in the
event of a transmission outage (Figure 1).
Construction of the project began with-
out delay in April 2007. A June 2008 con-
tract 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 af-
ter 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 ef-
ficient gas engine on the market, which has
a long record of reliable generation in peak-
ing service: the Wrtsil 20V34SG natural
gasfired engine. Equipped with selective
catalytic reduction technology to meet the
local stringent air emissions limits, each of
the nine Wrtsil engines has the following
nominal performance:
Power: 8,439 kW
Heat rate: 7,720 Btu/kWh
Electrical efficiency: 44.2%
The net site rating of the nine gas en-
gines totals 76 MW. The cost of these nine
engines plus appurtenances was just under
half of the total project cost, or approxi-
mately $30 million.
Wrtsil, 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,
Wrtsil reported more than 40 GW of pow-
er installed in power plants in 165 countries.
The company is undoubtedly the worlds
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 gasfired 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 Wrtsil
18V34SG units that can produce 111 MW
of intermediate and peak load power.
The Ultimate Flexible Design
GEC was constructed on a 4.2-acre site
adjacent to MWEs Knoll substation, an
appropriate location to plug in a peaking
plant to supply electricity to central Kan-
sas. Each of the nine gas engines is capable
of supplying 25% of rated power within 2
minutes of receiving a start signal and can
reach full power in only 10 minutes.
The engines part-load efficiency and
low overall heat rate rival those of a mod-
ern combustion turbine combined-cycle
plant, and the multiple-unit configuration
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Plant electrical power (MW)
E
l
e
c
t
r
i
c
a
l

e
f
c
i
e
n
c
y

(
%
)
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
2. Even efficiency. The dispatch plan for the first five of the nine Wrtsil 20V34SG
engines at the Goodman Energy Center shows that very little efficiency is lost with part-load
operation. Source: Wrtsil
September 2009
|
TOP PLANTS
gives load dispatchers much more operating
flexibility than a combined-cycle plant for
meeting system demand.
The key is the engines flat part-load
efficiency curve (Figure 2). There are no
wrong answers when dispatching these
unitsit doesnt matter if the dispatcher
brings two engines up to rated load one at a
time or starts two or more units and brings
them up to rated load in load-sharing mode.
Dont try that with combustion turbines, as
dispatchers are obliged to manage a com-
bined cycle as a complete load block. An-
other plus: Gas engine performance is not
reduced with higher ambient temperatures
or increased elevation, as is the case with a
combustion turbine.
There is another important economic
advantage to building a plant with multiple
engines: Part-load operation results in little
loss of efficiency, unlike operating a com-
bustion turbine. This advantage gives an op-
erator the ability to imbed into the dispatch
plan a spinning reserve capacity. If the op-
erator elects to operate all nine units at 90%
load, then the plant has approximately 7.6
MW of spinning reserve that can be added
to the grid in seconds (Figure 3). There are
also tangible operation and maintenance
(O&M) advantages with a multi-engine
plant. With one engine out of service for
an overhaul or service at GEC, only 11%
of the plants rated power is unavailable. A
combined-cycle plant lacks that level of re-
dundancy or operating flexibility.
GECs design also allows additional units
to be added at a later date. Wrtsil calls it
adding units in a rational manner; incre-
mental units can be easily added to the plant
as demand for power increases, without af-
fecting existing operations.
One more advantage of a multi-engine
operation with fast-starting and spinning re-
serve capability is its ability to quickly pro-
vide backup to a grid supplied by stochastic
generators, such as wind turbines with low
capacity factors (<30%).
The facility requires few O&M techni-
cians: Seven new full-time employees were
added to four current employees of MWE to
operate and maintain the plant.
Water and Environmental
Considerations
The Great Plains are known for limited wa-
ter, so that precious resource must be care-
fully managed. In his remarks announcing
the project, Lehman noted the importance he
places on minimizing water consumption.
The Goodman Energy Center provides a
clean, cost-effective way to meet the peak
energy needs of our customers, and will
improve service reliability. This project will
provide an efficient resource with . . . negli-
gible water consumption, he said.
The closed-circuit cooling water system
used at GEC eliminates water consump-
tion by that system and the water losses
associated with water treatment equipment
and wastewater disposal, as is common
with central station plants. In fact, all wa-
ter drained from the system during mainte-
nance is stored and reused. The only water
consumed at the site is for cleaning and do-
mestic use (Figure 4).
One other interesting construction fea-
ture: Fly ash from a local coal-fired power
plant was used to stabilize the soil in graded
areas prior to developing roads and pouring
concrete foundations. Crushed, recycled
concrete was used as original surfacing for
all unpaved areas of the plant.
All grasslands outside the fence, except
for the access road, have been returned to
native grasses.
editor-in-chief.
3. Big engine hall. The engine hall is split into two sections with six 8.4-MW, 20-
cylinder engines on one side (pictured) and three on the other. Space has been allocated so
that an additional three engines can be easily added in the future, as MWEs needs increase.
Notice that the front wall (right) is positioned to allow a crankshaft to be pulled after removal
of the generator. Each engine generator system weighs 151 tons and is not bolted to the
floor. Instead, each system is mounted on 20 spring packs that eliminate transferring engine
vibration to the building foundation. Each engine holds 1,378 gallons of lubricating oil. Cour-
tesy: Burns & McDonnell
4. Plant back yard. The exhaust gases from each engine exit the building, pass through
the selective catalytic reduction system, and then enter the stack. The rusted steel stacks
are made out of Cor-Ten steel (A606), which forms a protective rust layer that provides excel-
lent corrosion protection and never needs painting. The fin-fan cooling units, also supplied
by Wrtsil, use clamp-style fittings to connect all the cooling water lines and reduced field
construction labor cost by 40%. Courtesy: Burns & McDonnell
|
September 2009 34
TOP PLANTS
Livorno Ferraris Power Plant,
Vercelli Province, Italy
Owned/operated by: E.ON Produzione Centrale Livorno Ferraris
Northern Italians are enjoying la dolce vita (the sweet life) even more today
than they have historically, thanks to the additional electrical capacity
provided by the new Livorno Ferraris power plant. Well-received by lo-
cals due to its environmentally progressive operations and low-profile
appearance, the 800-MW plant is powered by combined-cycle units that
burn natural gas. The plant, which generates more than 5 million kWh
per year, is part of a comprehensive renewal of the Italian energy sector
and will make an important contribution toward ensuring that the coun-
trys power supply is more secure.
K
nown for its beauty, wine, and artistic
legacy from the Renaissance period,
Vercelli is a province in northern
Italys Piedmont region that also is home
to the busy industrial centers of Milan and
Turin. The new gas-fired Livorno Ferraris
power plant is located in the municipal-
ity of Livorno Ferraris, which has approxi-
mately 4,400 inhabitants. In addition to hav-
ing many industrial facilities, the region is
home to one of the largest rice cultivation
areas in Europe. Commissioned in Septem-
ber 2008, the new 800-MW plant, which is
nearly 57% efficient, is located in an area
with numerous rice fields (Figure 1).
The plant is owned by E.ON Produzione
Centrale Livorno Ferraris, a company of
which E.ON Italia owns 75% and Berner
Kraftwerke FMB (BKW) owns 25%, ac-
cording to Plant Manager Frank Krger.
The turnkey contractor was the consortium
of Siemens AG and Siemens SpA Italy. The
environmentally friendly, highly efficient
power plant generates approximately 5
TWh (5 million kWh) per year and was in-
stalled for roughly 400 million (estimated
in July 2009). Approximately 40 jobs have
been generated in Livorno Ferraris by the
new power plant.
The Italian Electric Power Sector
Italy is the fourth-largest power market in
Europe, according to sources from E.ON Ita-
lia. In recent years, many aging power plants
had to be shut down, and Italy has become
increasingly dependent on imported power.
With a population currently estimated
to be more than 58 million, Italy has a di-
versified economy with a well-developed
industrial northdominated by private
companiesand a less-developed agricul-
tural south.
According to the U.S. Central Intelligence
Agencys (CIA) World Factbook, Italys
annual electrical production was calculated
recently to be approximately 292.1 billion
kWh (2007 estimate) and electric consump-
tion was about 316.3 billion kWh (2006 es-
timate). The CIAs research also shows the
country has to make up this difference by
buying electricity from other countries; an-
nually, Italians import approximately 34.56
billion kWh and export about 1.916 billion
kWh (2007 estimates).
In order to meet the countrys increasing
power requirements and reduce its depen-
dence on imports, the Italian government is
now heavily promoting the construction of
new power plants, which will help to boost
electrical capacity nationwide.
After liberalization of the energy market,
German company E.ON decided to invest
in Italy and has become the fourth energy
producer in the country alongside the major
Italian utilities Edison, Enel, and Eni.
1. A bumper crop. An aerial view of the E.ON combined-cycle plant at Livorno Ferraris,
Italy, which is located amid rice fields. The plant, which has an installed capacity of 800 MW
and an efficiency of 57%, is capable of providing over a million households with an economical
supply of gas-fired electricity. Courtesy: E.ON
W
E
S
T
I
N
G
H
O
U
S
E

E
L
E
C
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R
I
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C
O
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L
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September 2009 36
TOP PLANTS
Plant Profile
The Livorno Ferraris plant was built by Sie-
mens as a turnkey project. Martin Reuss, proj-
ect manager at Siemens Energy, Germany,
explained that the plant is a combined-cycle
multishaft reference power plant (SCCF-400F
multishaft 2 + 1). The plant (Figure 2) includes
the following key components:
Two gas turbines: SGT5-4000F
A two-casing combined high-pressure/
intermediate-pressure (HP/IP) steam
turbine: SST5-5000 HI-L from Siemens
Three air-cooled generators: SGen5-1000A
from Siemens
A condenser: air-cooled condenser sup-
plied by GEA Scambiatori SpA
Two heat-recovery steam generators
(HRSGs): natural circulation type sup-
plied by STF SpA
A control system: SPPA-T3000the
latest technology from Siemens
Under the terms of the service contract,
Siemens is responsible for providing gas
turbine maintenance for up to 12 years, be-
ginning with the first major overhaul of the
turbines.
In building the plant, Siemens used the
design principle of modularity for flex-
ibility. For example, the use of identical
air-cooled generators for the gas and the
steam turbines removes the requirement
for hydrogen handling and supply. It also
improves asset management by minimizing
the quantity of spare parts needed.
Siemens also achieved improvements
at the Livorno plant through the use of a
closed feedback loop related to the power
plant design. For example, the company
used input from prior projects and past op-
eration and maintenance experience to im-
prove the plant design.
Since the plant went online last year, it
has been operated by a team of three per-
sons working in three eight-hour shifts,
with one of them always present in the con-
trol room, Krger explained. The Siemens
SPPA-T3000 instrumentation and control
system has been integrated with a vibration-
monitoring system for the balance of plant,
allowing remote monitoring of equipment
behavior.
Advantages of Innovative
Equipment
By installing advanced technology at the
Livorno Ferraris plant, Siemens was able to
improve fuel consumption and overall ef-
ficiency. Krger described the benefits of
several key equipment components at the
plant.
Steam Generator. With the SST5-
5000s special compact design of the HP/
IP turbine, hot steam conditions are con-
fined to the middle of the casing, while the
glands at the casing ends are in regions of
relatively low steam conditions. Tempera-
ture decay is much slower when compared
to the design with individual turbine cas-
ings. Consequently, start-up times for
compact turbines are significantly shorter,
saving precious fuel.
The main feature of the low-pressure
(LP) turbine is the double shell inner cas-
ing, which can be displaced axially by
means of pushrods. Differential expan-
sion between rotor and casings is thus
minimized under all operating conditions,
which is essential for high efficiency. This
steam turbine combines all the advantages
of optimal steam turbine design, including
highest efficiency, highest availability, and
trouble-free operation at any load required
by the system.
Air-cooled Condenser. The gas turbine
cycle exhaust heat is used in the HRSG to
produce steam for the steam turbine. Sie-
mens patented bypass/part stream deaera-
tor is positioned on top of one HRSG and
ensures quick deaeration of the condensate
during start-up or low-load operation of the
water steam cycle. The HRSGs provided are
simple conversion natural-circulation drum-
type generators and generate steam in high-,
intermediate-, and low-pressure sections.
A condensate preheater is integrated
into the HRSG. By using the exhaust gas
energy to preheat the condensate before
it passes toward the feedwater pump and
into the LP system, this arrangement en-
ables higher efficiencies for the combined-
cycle power plant.
Digital Control System. To meet the
technical, economic, and environmental
needs of modern power plants, Siemens
developed its SPPA-T3000 digital control
system, with open standardsbased hard-
ware and software. The structure and re-
dundant processors of SPPA-T3000 ensure
maximum availability and reliability. The
SPPA-T3000 instrumentation and control
system is used for almost the entire power
plantturbines, steam generator, and main
systemsand is supporting excellence in
operation at Livorno Ferraris. (More details
on the design and capabilities of the SPPA-
T3000 are available in Upgraded Control
System Adds to Merchant Plants Bottom
Line, POWER, January 2009.)
Arrivederci to Air Pollution
The state-of-the-art, single-shaft SGT5-
4000F gas turbine is of single-casing design.
The combustion system combines all the ad-
vantages of optimal combustion, including
low NO
x
and CO emissions, high operating
flexibility, and a compact design with good
accessibility, according to Krger.
Measurements taken on site show that
during normal operation, NO
x
emissions
are well below the regulatory limit of 30
mg/Nm
3
[milligrams per normal cubic me-
ters] without SCR [selective catalytic re-
duction], Krger said.
Natural gas from the pipeline is coming
from different sources, including Russia,
2. Power, Italian style. This schematic shows the E.ON combined-cycle plant at
Livorno Ferraris, Italy. Siemens Energy designed it as a multi-shaft 2 + 1 configuration to
achieve maximum flexibility. Courtesy: Siemens Energy
September 2009
|
TOP PLANTS
Algeria, and the Netherlands. Due to limited
flow on the distribution line, the natural gas
can change suddenly in composition and
calorific value. This variability imposes the
need for very quick response from the tur-
bine fuel system controls to maintain the re-
quired electricity generation.
In order to maintain turbine efficiency as
high as possible, the plant uses a compressor
washing system. To accommodate rapidly
changing operating conditions, this system
can be operated online and off-line.
Construction Challenges
Several technical solutions at Livorno Fer-
raris are unusual for a combined-cycle pow-
er plant but had to be adopted to comply
with authorization granted by local authori-
ties in charge of environment protection,
Krger explained.
Because the soil at the site was full of wa-
ter [and did not have the required compressive
strength for standard concrete pad founda-
tions], it was necessary to rest the founda-
tions on piles, he said. Standard concrete
piles were not allowed because they would
disturb the flow of underground waters. The
piling was constructed according to the Vibro
Column Technique by the Italian subsidiary
of a German company (one of the two sup-
pliers in Europe). A 1-meter-high concrete
head was plugged into the soil, followed by
a column of compacted gravel, which allows
water to go through it with minimum impact
on the original water flow.
Although surface water is present in
great quantities at the plant site, it could be
not used to as cooling water due to the need
to prevent any possible contamination of
the water that could affect nearby rice cul-
tivation. Because a standard water-cooled
steam condenser was not allowed, Siemens
had to install an air-cooled steam condens-
er. This was unusual, considering that air-
cooled technology is widely used by power
plants located in desert environments but is
not commonly used when water is available
because of the large size and high cost of
such equipment.
The plant building, which contains all
three turbogenerator sets, the two HRSGs,
and offices, had to be no more than 32 meters
(m) in height in order to meet environmental
standards regarding visibility. This created
a challenge, Krger explained, as the typi-
cal height of HRSGs is approximately 38
m to 40 m. For this project, Siemens had to
modify the design so that HRSG equipment
could fit inside the main building.
The color of the building and the square
stacks had to be such that they would have
less impact on the environment under all
weather conditions. Sample panels were
exposed to different lighting conditions
from sunshine to fogbefore permission
was granted for installation.
Usually, passersby can detect a power
plant site by the steel pylons supporting the
high-tension cables that connect it to the grid.
But the utility did not want this standard,
high-visibility profile. Therefore, the con-
tractor had to connect the plant to the grid by
laying underground high-voltage (400 kV)
cable for 1.5 km to link it to the national grid
at the Terna substation (Figure 3).
The entire plant is surrounded by a tree
fence to shelter it. Although the recently
planted trees havent reached their mature
heights, the Livorno Ferraris power plant is
more attractive than most and looks more
like an office complex than an industrial
plant (Figure 4). European engineering and
design have perfectly balanced the need for
reliable electricity, low environmental im-
pact, and a scenic countryside.
Angela Neville, JD is
POWERs senior editor.
3. Stepping up voltage. These are the medium-voltage transformers installed at the
Livorno Ferraris power plant. During construction, Siemens had to lay 1.5 kilometers of under-
ground 400-kV high-voltage cable from the plant to the Terna substation in order to connect
the plant to the Italian national grid. Courtesy: E.ON
4. Fashionably functional. In the land famous for Ferrari cars, Armani suits, and
other symbols of sophisticated style, it is not surprising that the Livorno Ferraris power plant
building is an example of attractive, yet functional architectural design. Courtesy: E.ON
|
September 2009 38
TOP PLANTS
Portlands Energy Centre,
Ontario, Canada
Owner/operator: The Portlands Energy Centre LP, a 50/50 limited partnership between Ontario Power Generation Inc. and
TransCanada Energy Ltd.
Construction of the Portlands Energy Centre was a logistical dream: A moth-
balled power plant next door had an active switchyard, natural gas pipe-
line, and cooling water structure. The new facility put peak power into
the Ontario Power Authoritys grid from its two combustion turbines
only two years after collecting the necessary permits. The entire plant
entered commercial service on April 23, 2009six weeks early.
T
he Portlands Energy Centre (PEC) is a
gas-fired plant located on a 12-hectare
parcel of land beside Lake Ontario in
Port Land, about 5 kilometers southeast of
downtown Toronto (Figure 1). The project
site, created from a recovered landfill in
1912, has historically been used for power
generation. Today, the site includes the R.L.
Hearn Generating Station, built in the early
1950s and mothballed in 1983.
However, the 115-kV Hydro One substa-
tion fed by Hearn is of strategic importance
to the City of Toronto, and its proximity fa-
cilitated a direct grid connection for the new
project located adjacent to Hearn. The site
also has rail access and is close to a natural
gas pipeline that supplied the Hearn plant
in previous years. In other words, the site
was ready-made for a new state-of-the-art
combined-cycle plant.
System Description
The nominal 550-MW combined-cycle
plant is configured as a 2 x 1 combined-
cycle power block built on two 181-MW
General Electric Frame 7FA combustion
turbines outfitted with dry low-NO
x
sys-
tems. Each turbine exhausts into a hori-
zontal triple-pressure heat-recovery steam
generator (HRSG) with reheat and is con-
figured with duct burners that can gener-
ate enough steam to produce an additional
50 MW from each HRSG in the nominally
rated 290-MW Alstom steam turbine. Total
project cost is expected to be approximate-
ly $730 million.
Provisions have been included in the
plant design to allow for cogeneration, in the
form of extraction steam directed to a heat
exchanger. The facility is designed such that
in the event of a steam turbine failure, steam
can be bypassed to the condenser, thereby al-
lowing both combustion turbines to continue
operating.
Almost 220,000 gpm of once-through
cooling water from the ship channel con-
denses steam, causing a discharge tempera-
ture rise of 5C. Each gas turbine can operate
in simple cycle using a exhaust gas bypass
stack. Lake water is pumped from a new in-
take on the shipping channel and discharged
1. New plant docks in Port Land. The Portlands Energy Centre LP, a 50/50 limited partnership between Ontario Power Generation
Inc. and TransCanada Energy Ltd., recently commissioned its 550-MW combined-cycle plant in Port Land, about 5 kilometers southeast of
downtown Toronto. Courtesy: Portlands Energy Centre
September 2009
|
TOP PLANTS
into the outer harbor via the existing Hearn
discharge channel. The intake structure
consists of four channels, one for each of
the three circulating water pumps and one
for the auxiliary cooling water pumps, trav-
eling screen wash pump, and raw water
pumps. Further dredging of the discharge
channel was required to make the necessary
flow profiles possible.
Three fuel gas compressors (two operating,
one standby) boost natural gas from pipeline
pressure to that required by the combustion
turbines. Each compressor uses a 1.8-MW
motor. A single emergency diesel generator
rated at 1.8 MW was also included. A com-
mon building houses the combustion turbines,
HRSGs, steam turbine, and balance-of-plant
equipment. The HRSG stack, located outside
the building, has a diameter of about 5.5 m
and extends 75 m above grade.
Project Schedule
The implementation agreement between PEC
and Ontario Power Authority (OPA) was
signed on February 10, 2006. The agreement
described the basic terms and the process by
which a final power supply contract would be
negotiated. The 20-year accelerated Clean
Energy Supply Contract between PEC and
OPA was signed on August 18, 2006.
Simultaneously, an engineering, pro-
curement, and construction contract was
negotiated between PEC and SNC-Lavalin
and signed on July 31, 2006.
Simple-cycle completion was achieved
in May 2008 to accommodate OPAs re-
quirement for energy during the peak de-
mand season, June through September.
PEC entered the acceptance test phase
on April 13 and reported its successful
completion on April 21. The project turn-
over from SNC-Lavalin was completed
on April 22, followed by commercial op-
eration of the plant the following daysix
weeks early.
This is another great day for the Port-
lands Energy Centre, Ontario Power Gen-
eration, TransCanada and SNC-Lavalin,
and the people of Toronto, said Curtis Ma-
honey, PEC general manager. We are very
proud of the many men and women who
worked around the clock to complete the
construction of PEC. It is on line on budget
and weeks ahead of schedule.
Operational data reported shortly after
the plant entered commercial service show
that combustion turbine 1, operating with its
dry low-NO
x
system, produces 22.75 ppm
NO
x
at 15% O
2
. Turbine 2 was producing
25.90 ppm NO
x
at 14% O
2
. Data from the
Independent Electricity System Operator in
July show the plant is currently operating
weekdays as an afternoon-evening peaker.
PEC expended approximately 2.5 mil-
lion man-hours to construct and commis-
sion the facility.
Keep the Noise Down
PEC is located near residential and other
commercial facilities, which require the
plant to meet a far field noise limit of 40
dBA at the nearest receptor. Frequent,
nonemergency-type emitters (such as start-
up and shutdown systems) are included in
this criterion. All safety relief valves are
equipped with permanent silencing to meet
the criteria plus 10 dBA.
PEC was focused on being a good neigh-
bor and involved local stakeholders in the
development process and construction
status by forming a Public Relations and
Community Liaison Committee. That com-
mittee provided recommendations to PEC
regarding key aspects of the facility design
and plant operations, including landscaping
plans, emergency preparedness plans, and
other evolving issues, such as the citys area
redevelopment plants.
editor-in-chief.
|
September 2009 40
TOP PLANTS
Riverside Repowering Project,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Owner/operator: Xcel Energy
Xcel Energy has completed the third and final project required by its 2003
Metropolitan Emissions Reduction Project agreement: repowering the
Riverside Plant with a gas-fired 2 x 1 combined-cycle plant and tearing
down the old coal-fired plant. Saved from demolition was the Unit 7
steam turbine system that now serves the new plant. Xcel staff expertly
managed the project to an on-time start-up and accepted many impor-
tant construction tasks, harkening back to the days when utilities took a
more active role in the design and construction of projects.
M
ay Day 2009 marked the commer-
cial operation of Xcel Energys
(Xcel) newly repowered Riverside
Plant and achievement of the emissions re-
duction goals defined by the Metropolitan
Emissions Reduction Project (MERP) in
2003. MERP grew from an emissions reduc-
tion bill passed during the 2001 Minnesota
legislative session that requested Xcel to
make a series of voluntary emissions reduc-
tions; in return, the costs of making quali-
fied emissions reductions could be passed
on to ratepayers.
MERP required Xcel to complete three
specific projects: rehabilitate and add state-
of-the-art emissions controls to the coal-
fired King Plant in Oak Park Heights, Minn.;
replace the aging coal-fired High Bridge
Plant, located near downtown St. Paul on
the banks of the Mississippi River, with a
570-MW natural gasfired combined-cycle
plant (a POWER 2008 Top Plant); and re-
power the century-old coal-fired Riverside
Plant, the oldest plant in the Xcel system,
with natural gasfired combustion turbines
and heat-recovery steam generators (Figure
1). Xcel completed the $380 million King
Plant upgrades in 2007, and High Bridge
entered commercial service in May 2008.
Commercial operation of the newly repow-
ered Riverside Plant on May 1 completed
Xcels winning trifecta.
At a cost of $1 billion, MERP was ex-
pensive but effective, because it represented
a common goal that perennial power plant
opponents could rally around. It set up this
odd situation. . . . You found yourself ally-
ing yourself with people youd been argu-
ing with for years, said Darrell Gerber, a
board member of Environmental Justice
1. Before and after. Xcel repowered its century-old coal-fired Riverside Plant (top) with
gas-fired state-of-the-art combustion turbines and heat-recovery steam generators to drasti-
cally reduce plant emissions while getting another 80 MW of power generation from the plant.
The Unit 7 steam turbine was reused by the repowering project, while the Unit 7 boiler and
the entire Unit 8 were retired from service and are in the process of being demolished and
removed from the site. The repowered Riverside Plant (bottom) entered commercial service
on May 1, 2009. Courtesy: Xcel Energy
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|
September 2009 42
TOP PLANTS
Advocates of Minnesota. Xcel formed al-
liances with environmentalists, legislators,
and neighborhood groups to win support
for MERP in general and repowering the
Riverside Plant in particular.
Xcel President Dick Kelly noted dur-
ing the April 20, 2006, groundbreaking
ceremony and tree-planting in Marshall
Terrace Gardens, adjacent to the plant, the
importance of the Riverside Plant to the
neighborhood as well as all Twin Cities
residents: We got here through a partner-
ship with you the community, a partnership
with you the elected officials, and you the
employees. This is a big compliment to all
of you, and were excited about it. Kelly
went on to make a promise to the plants
neighbors: As we look to the future, this is
part of who we are. We understand that as
a utility we do have an impact on the envi-
ronment, and well do whatever we can to
minimize that impact.
Contain Rising Costs
The first, and perhaps foremost, technique
for minimizing the impact on ratepayers of
constructing new power plants is to keep
costs as low as possible. MERP appears to
be a good deal for Xcels ratepayers. The
three projects have not only significantly
decreased power plant emissions in the
Twin Cities and surrounding areas, but
also, the cost to ratepayers by 2010 will be
only about $3.50 to $5.00 per month over
the costs otherwise expected from build-
ing new plants to supply the incremental
power added to the grid by Riverside and
High Bridge.
MERP is a template for how a util-
ity can work closely with legislators and
other stakeholders to bring about dramatic
emissions reductions while simultaneously
squeezing more electrical generation from
critically placed urban plants.
The Riverside Plant, located about 4
miles north of Minneapolis along the Mis-
sissippi River, was originally developed
in 1911 through 1938, although the early
units were retired 20 years ago. Units 1 and
2 were built in 1911; Units 3, 4, and 5 fol-
lowed in close succession in 1914, 1917,
and 1931 respectively. Two more units
were added in the 1930s, and another major
addition was made to the plant during the
1940s. By 1966, Riverside Plant consisted
of eight operating units with a net capacity
of 512 MW. By the 1980s only two units
continued to operate; the remainder were
mothballed. Units 7 (165 MW) and 8 (223
MW) continued to serve critical loads in
downtown Minneapolis and surrounding
areas until construction began on the $249
million repowering project. All the existing
units at Riverside Plant were coal-fired.
Something Old, Something New
The sites tight dimensions required using
a phased construction approach to repow-
ering the Riverside Plant (Table 1). Exist-
ing, unused facilities were demolished or
relocated to make room for new equipment.
This was a different design approach than
that used at the High Bridge project, where
a new combined-cycle plant was built on
top of a plants old coal pile and demolition
of the entire plant followed at a later date.
At Riverside, Units 7 and 8 continued
operating during the demolition phase of
the early boiler plant structures to make
room for the new equipment. After the
site foundations were ready, the first of the
new equipmenttwo new General Electric
Frame 7FA combustion turbines, nominally
rated at 173 MW each and numbered Units
9 and 10were installed.
Steam from both of the new Nooter/
Eriksen heat-recovery steam generators
(HRSGs) is directed to an existing steam
turbine, as is typical with a repowering
project. In this case, HRSG steam goes to
Unit 7. The two HRSGs were designed as
dual-pressure units producing high-pres-
sure (HP) steam at 970 psig at 1,014F and
intermediate pressure (IP) steam at 108
psig at 455F. Each HRSG was also out-
fitted with a selective catalytic reduction
system plus injection of a 19% aqueous
solution of ammonia.
The original coal-fired boiler 7, with two
separate wall-fired furnaces, was operated
until the steam lines from the new HRSGs
were ready for connection. As it happened,
the outage for the steam system tie-in oc-
curred just after the Republican National
Convention early last September, and the
boilers were permanently shut down just
after Labor Day. Unit 8 boiler, a single
pressurized boiler with a cyclone furnace
installed in 1964, continued to operate late
into the construction project. It was shut
down after Thanksgiving weekend last year
once the repowered Unit 7 was operating.
The Unit 8 furnace was used for heating
steam through the winter but was officially
retired on March 31. Demolition of Unit
8 and the remaining coal storage and han-
dling systems is now under way and will
continue through the end of next year.
An important priority in any repowering
project is to reuse as much of the existing
plant equipment and systems as possible.
In addition to reusing the Unit 7 steam tur-
bine, the existing condenser and cooling
water system and structures continue to be
used, as well as the steam turbine genera-
tor step-up transformer. Circulating water
intakes were upgraded with T-screens dur-
ing the construction outage to meet Clean
Water Act Section 316(b) requirements.
At the time construction began on the
repowering project, the existing two coal-
fired units produced 386 MW. After repow-
ering, Unit 8 was decommissioned but was
replaced by two 173-MW combustion tur-
bines (Figure 2). The net result is that the
repowered Riverside Plant has a nominal
rating of 466 MW, an increase of 80 MW
over its pre-repowered state. Additionally,
compared with the coal-fired plant, emis-
sions from the repowered plant into the
Twin Cities area have been all but elimi-
nated (Table 2).
Digital controls retrofitted on Units 7
and 8 a decade ago were a big plus for the
engineers designing the plants integrated
control system. Both plants had been up-
graded from their original analog controls
to Emerson Process Managements Ova-
tion expert control. Each unit was designed
around a single network, so the new system
tapped into the existing Unit 7 steam tur-
bine controls without much problem.
Xcel selected the Unit 7 Westinghouse
steam turbine for the repowering because it
was refurbished and upgraded in the mid-
1980s by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The
turbine was overhauled after Unit 7 was re-
tired early in the construction project with
several additional upgrades added. A port
Table 1. Riverside Plant repowering project timeline. Source: Xcel Energy
Stage Timeframe
Metropolitan Emissions Reduction Project
authorized by Minnesota Public Utilities Commission
December 2003
Permits secured JanuaryJune 2006
Major equipment contracts awarded AprilDecember 2006
Site preparation completed August 2006April 2007
Major equipment delivered AprilDecember 2007
Start-up and testing September 2008March 2009
Commercial operation May 1, 2009
Demolition and removal of old plant June 2009December 2010
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September 2009 44
TOP PLANTS
for the injection of IP steam generated by
the HRSGs was added to the interstage area
between the steam turbine HP and IP sec-
tions. A larger LP steam turbine section also
was added to efficiently expand the addi-
tional steam generated by the HRSGs.
A DIY Project
Darin Schottler, a consulting engineer with
Xcel and one of the project leaders, told
POWER in a July interview that Xcel elected
to manage this project itself, using an old
fashioned, lump-sum approach with the
owner purchasing all the major equipment
(such as combustion turbines and HRSGs)
and commodities (including steel and electri-
cal cables). Schottler said that Xcel carefully
studied the more familiar engineer-procure-
construct approach that was used on its High
Bridge project, but the additional costs did
not adequately offset the risks. A repowering
project requires contractors to carefully inte-
grate the new and the old, adjacent to an op-
erating unita risk that cant be apportioned
in contract language.
Sargent & Lundy was the owners engi-
neer for the Riverside repowering project,
working closely with Xcel engineers on the
contracting, technical specification develop-
ment, and delivery expediting. HDR provid-
ed additional engineering services, such as
detailed electrical design for the relocation
of electrical systems and demolition. Schot-
tler believes that about 90% of the construc-
tion contracts were developed by the Xcel
project team and that all of the construction
management was performed by Xcel.
By keeping much of the technical speci-
fication work internal, Schottler believes
that the team was better able to respond to
plant design concerns, improve the quality
of the material deliveries, and maintain bet-
ter overall control of the project.
For example, T91 alloys are becoming
common on new combined-cycle plants, yet
Xcel made a more conventional steel selec-
tion for main steam line (P-22) boiler tubes
because of the very high cost of T91 steel
and its long delivery lead times. Another
advantage was that the project team was
able to bring its hard-earned plant operating
experience to the specification and selecting
of plant equipment and components, such as
feedwater heater material specifications and
piping design.
Plant Director Ken Beadell, in a mid-July
discussion, pointed out the many challenges
that came with running a major construc-
tion project that requires demolishing old
equipment adjacent to an operating coal-
fired unit located on a very compact job site.
Remodeling the Riverside Plant was much
like watching an episode of This Old House.
You know what you want to build, but you
dont know what youll find when you open
the wall.
Beadell gave an interesting example. De-
molition of the original structures built from
1911 through 1938 (and abandoned in place)
was completed in 2006 to make way for
placement of the two new combustion tur-
bines and erection of the HRSGs that were
to be placed in the same footprint as the old
facilities. Interestingly, the original wood
pile foundations from the retired plants
were uncovered during excavation. Rather
than immediately demolish the foundations,
Sargent & Lundy structural engineers tested
their strength and found that the 80-year-old
piles were still capable of carrying the nec-
essary loads. The engineers then designed
a unique waffle wall to efficiently spread
the loads for the new HRSG foundations.
The list of major construction subcon-
tracts is short: AZCO Integrated Construc-
tion bid on and received three separate
contracts for building and steel erection,
erection of the HRSGs, and the overall me-
chanical construction.
Beadell proudly noted that Xcel supplied
much of the labor for many important con-
struction tasks. For example, the utility han-
dled large portions of the demolition and site
preparation work, including the final demo-
2. Good neighbor policy. The Riverside Plant is located very close to a residential neighborhood, so close attention was paid to reduc-
ing noise emissions from plant equipment. Removing a 475-foot stack, eliminating unit-train coal deliveries and fugitive dust emissions, and
driving air emissions much lower are also signs that Xcel Energy wants to be a good neighbor. Courtesy: Xcel Energy
Table 2. Emissions knock-out.
The Riverside Plant repowering was a win-
win proposition for ratepayers and the en-
vironment. Emissions reductions are based
on a comparison of average annual emis-
sions for the past five years of operation to
projected annual emissions for 20092010.
Source: Xcel Energy
Parameter Change from old plant
Rated power (MW) 80 MW, from 386 MW
to 466 MW
SO
2
99% decrease
NO
x
96% decrease
Mercury 100% decrease
Particulates 86% decrease
September 2009
|
TOP PLANTS
lition work that is ongoing. Xcel employees
also filled the gap when tasks were identi-
fied that were within the operating plant. A
good example is the demolition of the old
ball mills, coal piping, and hoppers (includ-
ing any necessary asbestos abatement) after
the boilers were finally retired.
Be a Good Neighbor
Kelly kept his promise to minimize the
impact of repowering Riverside to the sur-
rounding neighborhood by ensuring that the
plant was designed and will be operated as a
good neighbor. This was an important prom-
ise because the plant is located in an urban
setting with single-family homes only a few
yards away. Many families have been neigh-
bors of the plant for several generations.
Beyond eliminating the inevitable coal dust
problems, additional engineering and sound-
quieting components were added to the plant
to manage the high-frequency noise from the
combustion turbines and other noise sources
originating in the plant. The noise impact
on neighbors will also be lessened because
natural gas arrives by underground pipeline
rather than unit coal trains.
Removal of the plants 475-foot stack
also lessens the plants visual impact and
eliminates what was perhaps the most vis-
ible landmark in northern Minneapolis.
Employees of Xcel also have demonstrated
their desire to be good neighbors by their
actions. For example, across the street from
the plant are Brady Park and Marshall Ter-
race Gardens, public parks that Riverside
Plant employees helped build.
Hows It Going?
The plant had performed about 80 starts
through mid-July with no start-up fail-
ures. Overall unit trips were described as
very low, so the first few months of op-
eration are going quite well. The plant is
also described as exceeding its guaranteed
performance numbers during the initial per-
formance test with a heat rate better than
design. Tests with the combustion turbine
evaporative coolers in service are the only
performance tests remaining.
The plant is designed to be operated as
an intermediate-load asset within the Mid-
west ISO and is usually dispatched after
nuclear and baseload coal-fired plants.
However, Riverside does have one big ad-
vantage: Performance testing shows the
plant can turn down from full-load 470
MW net to 230 MW net while staying in
compliance with its permit emissions lim-
its. Optimizing ramp rates and controls
tuning continue.
editor-in-chief.
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|
September 2009 46
TOP PLANTS
Royal Pride Holland Commercial
Greenhouse Cogeneration Plant,
Middenmeer, North Holland
Province, Netherlands
Owner/operator: Royal Pride Holland
At Royal Pride Hollands commercial tomato greenhouse, green thumbs and
green energy go hand in hand. With a total energy utilization of 95% in
this application, GEs new Jenbacher J624 natural gasfired engines offer
the innovative greenhouse an economical supply of on-site electrical and
thermal power, as well as CO
2
fertilization, to support its operations.
I
ts not surprising that the Netherlandsa
country famous for its tulips and many
other horticultural accomplishments
is home to a state-of-the art commercial
greenhouse that is being powered by cogen-
eration. In September 2008, the Royal Pride
Holland facility, located about 50 kilometers
north of Amsterdam, and one of the coun-
trys largest commercial tomato greenhous-
es, began using the worlds first commercial
24-cylinder gas engine technology (Figure
1). Two of GE Energys 4-MW natural gas
fueled J624 GS engines began providing the
greenhouse with cogeneration, also known
as combined heat and power (CHP).
Because waste heat from the engines can
be used at very low temperatures and CO
2

captured from the exhaust gas can be used to
increase crop productivity, the cogen plants
overall energy utilization is an impressive
95%, according to Dick Kramp, GE Energys
marketing program manager for Jenbacher
engine greenhouse applications in the Nether-
lands. Since installing the new engines, Royal
Pride Holland has reduced its production costs
at the greenhouse by 20% (Figure 2).
Dutch Energy Sectors
Focus on Cogeneration
The Netherlands, whose population was re-
cently estimated to be more than 16 million,
has been at the forefront of Europes efforts
to encourage various industries to increase
the use of advanced cogeneration technol-
ogy to improve local energy efficiency and
security, which reduces fossil fuel consump-
tion and overall air emissions.
According to the U.S. Central Intelligence
Agencys (CIA) World Factbook, Dutch an-
nual electrical production was calculated in
2007 to be approximately 105.2 billion kWh,
and its residents electric consumption was
estimated to be about 122.8 billion kWh.
The country has to make up this difference
by buying electricity from other countries;
annually, the Dutch import approximately
23.09 billion kWh and export about 5.48
1. Gargantuan greenhouse. The Royal Pride Holland greenhouse covers 45 hectares
(approximately 111 acres), making it one of the largest facilities in the Netherlands and a major
international horticultural production center. Courtesy: Royal Pride Holland
2. Harvesting higher profits. Prady
Iyyanki, CEO of GE Energys Jenbacher gas
engine division (left), and Frank van Kleef, di-
rector of Royal Pride Holland, stand in front
of the Jenbacher combined heat and power
system. Since installing the new engines,
Royal Pride Holland has reduced its produc-
tion costs at the greenhouse by 20%. Cour-
tesy: Royal Pride Holland
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September 2009 48
TOP PLANTS
billion kWh (CIA 2007 estimates). Dutch
industries increasing use of cogeneration,
which improves energy efficiency, should
help to reduce the countrys overall depen-
dence on imported electricity.
One example of the national focus on
cogeneration is Cogen Netherlands, a
Dutch association dedicated to the promo-
tion of CHP. Cogen Netherlands works in
close cooperation with Cogen Europe. It
also assists organizations and companies
that want to learn more about the Dutch
CHP experience.
Cogeneration systems enable flexibility in
generation and energy usage options. They
can be supplemented with a boiler system to
bridge peak heat demand periods. Their op-
erating time and efficiency can be extended
by connecting them to a heat storage medi-
um. The thermal energy can be used both for
heating water and steam production as well
as for various types of process heat. Gas en-
ginepowered cogeneration systems are also
used for trigeneration (combined heating,
cooling, and power). The generated power
can be used by individual facilities such as
hospitals or fed into the public power grid.
Power plant electrical switch and control
systems distribute the electricity and man-
age the engine, while hydraulic equipment
handles the heat distribution.
Plant Profile
Previously, Royal Pride Holland had in-
stalled nine of GEs 3-MW, JMS 620 Jen-
bacher units at the same location. Prior to
adding the two latest engines, GEs Jen-
bacher center of excellence for greenhouse
applications worked with the Royal Pride
Holland staff to plan the layout of the green-
house energy center for optimal positioning
and integration of all the equipment to cre-
ate the best possible energy infrastructure,
according to Kramp.
Royal Pride Hollands greenhouse facil-
ity now features two energy centers that
supply the facility with heat, electricity, and
CO
2
fertilization. The two energy centers
contain a total of 11 GE Jenbacher engines
that generate a combined 36 MWe. The
two new J624 engines provide a combined
power output of 8 MWe.
The Royal Pride Holland plant is support-
ed by a full-service maintenance agreement
that will cover the units for up to 60,000
operating hours or 15 years of service. Two
full-time workers handle the plants regular
operations and maintenance.
The Royal Pride Holland greenhouse
has the potential in the coming years to be
expanded to 102 hectares [approximately
252 acres], up from the sites original 45
hectares, making it one of the largest fa-
cilities in the Netherlands and a major in-
ternational horticultural production center
[Figure 3], Kramp said.
New Technology
Improves Performance
In June 2007, GEs Jenbacher gas engine
divisionalready a leading provider of en-
gines with outputs between 0.25 MW and 3
MWunveiled the 4-MW J624 Jenbacher
gas engine (Figure 4).
The new 24-cylinder engine represents
a quantum leap in advanced high-speed gas
engine technology for commercial onsite
power applications, Kramp said. Con-
sider that a single J624 with an electrical
output of 4 MW can meet the electricity re-
quirements of about 9,000 European house-
holds. In addition, used as a cogeneration
application, the engine produces about 3.6
MW of heatallowing for overall plant ef-
ficiencies of up to 90%.
The new engine will provide the same
fuel flexibility (it can run on landfill and
coal mine gas as well as alternative fuels
such as biogas, sewage gas, and industrial
waste gas) and high reliability offered by
the entire Jenbacher gas engine portfolio,
Kramp said.
High-speed engines like the J624 result
in high power density as well as low instal-
lation costs, because they are smaller and
lighter than current medium- and slow-
speed engines. In addition, the J624 has a
high efficiency rate, which leads to lower
operating costs. The J624 features a high
3. Dutch treat. The Royal Pride Holland greenhouse produces truss tomatoes of vari-
ous types and sizes, but with one common characteristic: tasty flavor. During the approxi-
mately 11 months that the growing season lasts, the average plant grows to a length of 10 m
to 12 m and produces 30 to 35 trusses (fruit-bearing branches) of tomatoes. Courtesy: Royal
Pride Holland
4. Advanced technology. When used in a cogeneration application, such as at the
Royal Pride Holland greenhouse, the J624 Jenbacher gas engine produces about 3.6 MW of
heat, enabling overall energy utilization of up to 95%. Courtesy: Royal Pride Holland
September 2009
|
TOP PLANTS
heat recovery rate via a customer-tailored,
hydraulic integration of heat exchangers, al-
lowing it to suit the individual facilitys spe-
cific temperature level requirements.
The J624 offers low emissions, due to op-
timized combustion and the lean burn prin-
ciple, which reduces thermal stress on the
engine parts. It has a low life-cycle cost and
a long life time. Engines with high cylinder
numbers are the most cost-effective.
The basic GE Energy Jenbacher CHP
system consists of an engine generator unit
and heat exchangers for the utilization of
waste heat. The incorporation of a wide
range of heat sourcesfrom engine cool-
ing water to oil and air/fuel gas mixture to
exhaust gasis configured to maximize the
benefit to each individual customer.
GE Energys portfolio of Jenbacher
cogeneration applicationsincluding
those for greenhousesrecently received
the ecomagination certification under
GEs corporate initiative to offer custom-
ers advanced technologies to help meet
their pressing environmental challenges,
Kramp said. To earn the ecomagination
certification, a technology must pass a
stringent, independent audit and offer cus-
tomers definite economic and environmen-
tal advantages over existing products. CHP
plants are inherently more energy efficient
because they consume less fossil fuel than
separate power and heating systems, thus
supporting the Netherlands emissions re-
duction efforts.
Beyond greenhouses, another possible
application could be natural gasdriven
gensets for distributed generation. Another
potential use might include CHP systems
for industrial applications, such as textiles,
or even coal mine gas solutions, Kramp
said. Coal mine gas is highly associated
with the greenhouse gas effect, so the po-
tential for CO
2
emissions reduction is great.
Any other applications of Type 6 engines
will also be possible with the J624 engine.
And bigger plant sizes up to 40 MWand
even higherare made accessible with the
higher output engine.
Using CO
2
from Engine Exhaust
Gases as Fertilizer
The power and heat created by the Jen-
bacher cogeneration system for the Royal
Holland greenhouse are used in various
ways. The electricity provides power for
the greenhouses artificial lighting, and
surplus electricity is delivered to the local
grid. The thermal power efficiently meets
the greenhouses heating requirements.
Meanwhile, CO
2
from the engines ex-
haust gas is captured and used as a plant
fertilizer.
The plant is equipped with GEs Jenbach-
er cogenerationCO
2
fertilization system,
which purifies the engines exhaust. It allows
the gas to be recycled in the greenhouse as a
special fertilizer to help boost crop produc-
tionan environmentally preferable alterna-
tive to venting the gas into the atmosphere.
Energy and Emissions Savings
Royal Pride Hollands cogeneration process
reduces the facilitys fossil fuel consump-
tion. For example, it can avoid primary
energy input equivalent to the energy con-
tained in more than 64,000 barrels of oil,
according to Kramp. He also pointed out
that during an average year, the facility
emits 14% less CO
2
than would be emit-
ted by the separate production of heat and
electricity.
These calculations are based on perfor-
mance of two natural gasfired J624 CHP
units, operating 8,000 hours/year, compared
to separate production of heat by a gas boil-
er and the delivery of electricity on the Eu-
ropean grid, he said.
Angela Neville, JD is
POWERs senior editor.
Essential Reading for Plant Managers
A bimonthly online magazine from the editors of POWER
Your one-stop online resource for
power plant management concerns:
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GoverhmehI & PegulaIory
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sales@IradeIairgroup.com
|
September 2009 50
INDUSTRY TRENDS
CH
SO
United States of Am
Mexico
Natural GasFired
Generation
in North America
CH
SO
CH C
September 2009
|
INDUSTRY TRENDS
Canada
America
0150
151450
451900
9011,650
1,6514,175
O
p
e
r
a
t
i
n
g
U
n
d
e
r

c
o
n
s
t
r
u
c
t
i
o
n
P
r
o
p
o
s
e
d
Natural GasFired Plants
by Status & Nameplate Capacity (MW)
Courtesy: Platts
Data source: POWERmap. All rights reserved.
|
September 2009 52
Combined-Cycle Carbon Capture:
Options and Costs, Part I
Uncertainty about CO
2
emissions legislation is prompting power plant owners
to consider the possibility of accommodating add-on CO
2
capture and
sequestration solutions for coal-fired plants in the future. Those same
plant owners may be overlooking the possibility that future natural gas
fired combined cycles will also be subject to CO
2
capture requirements.
This month we examine the capture options. In a future issue, Part II will
present the installation and operating costs of different carbon capture
technologies.
By Justin Zachary, PhD, Bechtel Power Corp.
J
ust when you thought that carbon
capture and sequestration (CCS) only
applied to coal-fired plants, European
regulators are talking about extending the
technology requirement to natural gasfired
plants. In fact, many utilities and equipment
suppliers are now working on front-end en-
gineering designs for capturing the CO
2
from
gas plants.
At present, the timing and extent of regu-
lations governing the process are unknown.
Also, none of the current technologies has
emerged as the dominant solution of choice,
although many new and innovative alterna-
tives are in various stages of research, devel-
opment, or testing. For plants currently in the
planning or design stage, owners; engineer-
ing, procurement, and construction contrac-
tors; and equipment suppliers are struggling
to determine which features need to be in-
cluded in new equipment designs today for
future CCS systems.
In this context, the term CO
2
capture
ready requires careful consideration. Be-
yond the technical challenges, the commer-
cial investment in those specific features
aimed at future CCS must be justified. There
is a significant risk in selecting a specific
CCS technology today because the technol-
ogy is likely to become quickly obsolete,
further complicating future retrofits.
This article focuses on add-on features
that do not require substantial modification
of existing equipment, thereby making those
technologies available today. Because CO
2

capture is an energy-intensive process, this
article examines the impact on plant perfor-
mance of large steam extractions for CO
2

capture processes. Large quantities of elec-
trical power for CO
2
compression will also
be required. Part II of this article, slated for
an upcoming issue of POWER, will evaluate
the range of prices that should be expected
if carbon capture is required from gas-fired
combined-cycle plants.
CO
2
Capture Options
The most straightforward path to reducing
carbon emissions into the atmosphere is to
increase the thermal efficiency of a plant,
either through improved fuel combustion or
by increasing the turbomachinery efficiency.
In either case, less fuel is consumed to pro-
duce the equivalent output, so less carbon
is released. Unfortunately, these types of
performance upgrades could very well re-
sult in problems under the Clean Air Acts
New Source Review standards at many
U.S. plants, so overt equipment upgrades
are probably not feasible across the existing
fleet of combined-cycle plants.
It may come as a surprise that the postcom-
bustion capture process for natural gasfired
combined cycles is even more challenging
than for coal-fired plants because it must ac-
commodate low CO
2
concentration in the ex-
haust gases (around 3%). Current development
and pilot programs are focused on process-
ing higher CO
2
concentration levels (around
12%), which are typical for coal-fired plants.
One approach is to increase the CO
2
con-
centration in the flue gases to approximately
8% by recirculating some percentage of the
exhaust flue gases back into the gas turbine
inlet. This process does affect the behavior
of major gas turbine components (principal-
ly compressor and combustion performance)
and negatively affect performance due to the
additional auxiliary loads needed to cool the
flue gases prior to reinjection in the gas tur-
bine inlet.
A Familiar Set of Options
In principle, the range of postcombustion
CCS options is essentially the same for a
combined-cycle as for a coal-fired plant.
The similar undesirable side effects of this
approach to reducing carbon emissions also
remain: significant plant thermal efficiency
losses and increased operating costs. The
challenge then becomes to find the most effi-
cient means to supply the large quantities of
steam to the selected carbon capture technol-
ogy given the typical steam-side design of a
combined-cycle plant.
The most common CO
2
capture technolo-
gies can be grouped into three categories.
A detailed description of each option was
provided in my earlier articles, Options for
Reducing a Coal-Fired Plants Carbon Foot-
print, published in POWER in two parts,
June and July 2008:
Postcombustion capture of CO
2
from
the plant exhaust flue gases by means of
chemical absorption. (See also Commer-
cially Available CO
2
Capture Technology,
POWER, August 2009; Alstoms Chilled
Ammonia CO
2
-capture Process Advances
Toward Commercialization, POWER,
February 2008; and Pleasant Prairie
Power Plant Air Quality Control Upgrade
Project, POWER, October 2007.)
Precombustion capture of CO
2
in the
gas turbine in an integrated gasification
The postcombustion capture process for
natural gasfired combined cycles is even
more challenging than for coal-fired plants.
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September 2009 54
combined cycle (IGCC). In this arrange-
ment, the fuel coming from the gasifier
syngascontains mostly H
2
and CO. The
CO is converted to CO
2
in a water-shift
reactor, the CO
2
is removed by a physical
absorbent, and the H
2
is used as fuel in the
gas turbine.
CO
2
capture from a number of different
processes, such as oxyfuel combustion
(fuel combustion in oxygen rather than
air) and chemical looping.
The postcombustion capture methods
are the most likely to be used for existing
combined-cycle plants and the design of fu-
ture capture-ready power plants because they
require minimal preinvestment for steam tur-
bines and only a few later modifications to
the major components of the combined cycle.
The use of ammonia in place of traditional
amines may eventually reduce the parasitic
electrical and heat loads.
Although the technical and economic pen-
alties for CO
2
capture are high, postcombus-
tion technology represents one of the most
workable short-term solutions. Retrofits also
strongly point to postcapture as a practical
technical solution for some years to come.
Combined-Cycle Case Study
The use of chemical solvents in postcombus-
tion CO
2
capture is a proven technology and
will soon be proven with relatively large-
scale pilot coal-fired applications, so that de-
sign approach will be used for the remainder
of this discussion. To illustrate the impact
of CCS on turbomachinery designs, Table 1
provides data on a 1 x 1 combined cycle for
a 50-Hz application consisting of one F-class
gas turbine and one steam turbine that will be
used for the following case study.
Two key factors must be considered when
selecting a chemical solvent CO
2
removal
process for this sample plant:
Exhaust gas recirculation to combustion
turbine inlet. As mentioned above, the
recirculation increases the CO
2
concen-
tration in the flue gases from 3%4% to
7%8%, thus making the absorption pro-
cess more efficient and reducing the size of
the capture plant needed. For the process
to be effective, up to 50% of the exhaust
flue gases must be recycled. A major ob-
stacle associated with this approach is the
requirement to cool the recirculated flue
gas to the ambient temperature, an opera-
tion that increases the parasitic losses of
the power system.
Source of steam needed for amine stripper.
One option is to utilize the low-pressure
(LP) steam, as discussed below, as the
capture process heat source. The alterna-
tive is to create a separate circuit in the
heat-recovery steam generator (HRSG),
which isnt practical for a retrofit project.
It should be reiterated that a separate LP
steam or other external source will be re-
quired (supplying up to 25% of the steam
needed) for process purposes.
Note that both options will require the
steam turbine and HRSG be designed with
the ability to operate at design conditions
with large steam extraction flow.
The next challenge for the plant designer
is to identify the most efficient conversion
technology in terms of steam consumption
for the solvent regeneration and minimizing
electricity consumption for CO
2
compres-
sion. (See Capturing CO
2
: Gas Compres-
sion vs. Liquefaction, POWER, June 2009
for an analysis of the compression power re-
quired in a carbon capture system.)
There are many designer formulas for
solvents, consisting of several primary, sec-
ondary, and tertiary amines, including mo-
noethanolamine (MEA) and other reactive
ingredients. Therefore, providing an absolute
ratio of steam or electrical consumption per
ton of CO
2
captured might not be possible.
Figure 1, developed from various system sim-
ulations conducted by Bechtel, illustrates that
increasing the target CO
2
removal percentage
increases the steam and electricity required
for capture and compression. The simulation
assumed the basis for the evaluation is 95%
CO
2
removal from the flue gas and is based
on a generic amine (MEA) with 30% concen-
tration. Reducing the CO
2
capture rate from
95% to 80% reduces steam consumption by
about 20% and electricity consumption by
about 4.8% (Figure 2).
Redesign the Combustion Turbine
In a gas turbine, the nature of the premix
combustion system decreases the concentra-
tion of CO
2
in the exhaust flue gas to half
that of a coal-fired boiler. Recirculating part
of the exhaust gases achieves a higher CO
2

concentration while also reducing the oxygen
content in the air entering the compressor.
The impact of sustained gas turbine opera-
tion at or below 13% oxygen content in the
combustor and downstream turbine is not yet
sufficiently understood for many gas turbines
favored for todays combined-cycle plants.
Among the thermal NO
x
-reduction tech-
niques developed in recent decades, internal
flue gas recirculation (FGR) is being used
very effectively to lower peak flame tem-
peratures. However, the FGR rate can only
be increased to a certain value for stable op-
eration. Of particular interest is the fact that
NO
x
emission levels and combustion system
acoustics are substantially improved in this
mode of operation.
However, the process may affect combus-
tion stability and heat transfer properties.
Theoretically, the amount of recirculated
flow could be close to 40% of the exhaust
gases. For CCS, FGR takes place at the
compressor inlet. It should be noted that the
amount of cooling necessary to bring the
flue gases from exhaust conditions (at least
40C or 104F) to ambient temperature adds
a substantial parasitic load. Due to the high
sensitivity of gas turbine output to the com-
pressor inlet temperature, a mixed stream of
external air and recirculated gas above am-
bient temperature will certainly reduce the
power generated.
Large gas turbine manufacturers are con-
ducting extensive studies to examine not only
Table 1. Typical plant CO
2
capture
parameters for a combined cycle.
Source: Bechtel
S
t
e
a
m

c
o
n
s
u
m
e
d

(
k
g
)
/
C
O
2

r
e
m
o
v
e
d

(
k
g
)
0
5
10
15
20
25
0 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 100
CO
2
removed (%)
C
h
a
n
g
e

i
n

a
u
x
i
l
i
a
r
y

e
l
e
c
t
r
i
c
i
t
y
r
e
q
u
i
r
e
d

(
%
)
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 100
CO
2
capture (%)
Parameter Value
Plant output, nominal (MW) 450
Exhaust ue gas ow (tons/day) 65,000
CO
2
capture at 85% rate (tons/day) 3,200
Reboiler steam consumption (tons/day) 4,500
Auxiliary electricity consumption
(kWh/ton CO
2
)
200
1. Steam consumption at various
CO
2
capture rates. A generic amine-
based system with 95% carbon capture is
assumed. Source: Bechtel
2. A comparison of electricity con-
sumption at various CO
2
capture
rates. A 30% generic amine solvent concen-
tration with 97% carbon capture is assumed.
Reducing the CO
2
capture rate from 97% to
90% reduces the auxiliary electric consump-
tion by 1%. Source: Bechtel
September 2009
|
the operational impact of FGR on various
components but also the technical and eco-
nomic optimization of the amount of recircu-
lated flue gas.
Upgrade the Steam Turbine
The main impact on the steam turbine for ei-
ther amine- or ammonia-based CCS technol-
ogy derives from the large steam extractions
needed for solvent regeneration. A range of
solutions, stand-alone or in combination, are
available to cope with various amounts of ex-
tracted steam. The options presented here can
be implemented without a significant reduc-
tion in steam turbine efficiencies.
A considerable amount of steam is re-
quired for solvent regeneration. The steam
consumption for a representative amine-
based postcombustion capture system is
shown in Table 1. Typical supply steam con-
ditions are 3 bar (45 psi) and 270C (518F).
The amount of steam for 90% CO
2
recovery
from the flue gas may be as high as 1.4 kg for
1 kg of CO
2
, equivalent to more than 40% of
the LP steam turbine flow. Therefore, in all
plant operational scenarios, it is imperative to
consider the possibility that the CO
2
capture
plant might not be able to receive part or all
of the extraction steam from the LP section
of the steam turbine.
It is also possible that the steam turbine in-
termediate pressure (IP) and LP turbines are
located in a single casing, compounding the
difficulty of extracting the necessary steam
at the required pressures and temperatures.
Also, venting such large quantities of steam
is not an option in cases when the CO
2
plant
is out of service. Any design must accommo-
date rapid configuration changes that allow
the IP and LP modules to operate under zero-
extraction conditions.
There are three practical options for ex-
tracting the necessary steam for the carbon
capture process from a typical combined-
cycle steam turbine system:
Throttle cold reheat IP. This approach
uses IP steam but with the addition of a
throttle valve designed to keep the IP pres-
sure constant even when large quantities of
steam are extracted. This approach would
be selected when the IP and LP turbines
are located in the same casing and no IP-
LP crossover or LP extraction is possible.
Although significant throttling losses oc-
cur, this setup offers flexibility to extract
any amount of steam needed (that is, for
less than 90% CO
2
capture scenarios) and
the capability to restore full power genera-
tion rapidly when the CO
2
capture system
is not in operation (Figure 3).
Backpressure turbine. If the steam extrac-
tion for the postcombustion capture plant
is taken from an IP/LP crossover pipe, the
pressure and temperature are too high for
direct use in the sorbent regeneration pro-
cess. The best solution is to recover much
of the available energy to generate addi-
tional power through a noncondensing
turbine to supply the required steam pres-
sure and temperature to the carbon capture
process while reducing the additional aux-
iliary load (Figure 4). The less-desirable
alternative is to spray water in an oversize
attemperator.
Floating pressure LP. In the case of new
plants, a better solution is to have the LP
turbine operate at a pressure matching that
of the reboiler. However, for retrofits, add-
ing a noncondensing turbine may be the
only way to recover some of the parasitic
losses, despite the added complexity.
Table 1 also provides an example of the
impact of a CO
2
capture plant, starting with
the standard overall performance of a nominal
50-Hz, 450-MW net power plant and show-
ing the CO
2
capture system performance and
the incremental increase in auxiliary power
expected with postcombustion capture. The
amount of auxiliary electricity required is a
function of how much CO
2
is removed. It
should be emphasized that each project must
conduct its own evaluation based on specific
site conditions, selected capture technology,
and type of sorbent used. Because each steam
turbine vendor has a different cycle design
with dissimilar IP module exhaust pressures,
the output power of the noncondensing tur-
bine varies accordingly.
In the given case, steam extraction for the
postcombustion capture plant reduces steam
turbine output by almost 23%. In addition to
the reduction in plant gross output due to the
steam extraction, net power output is signifi-
cantly reduced by the increase in the auxil-
iary (parasitic) load.
When accounting for the power needed
for CO
2
compression, the auxiliary loads for
a plant with CCS are more than double than
for the same plant without CCS. The use of
the additional noncondensing turbine im-
proves the plant heat rate. In this particular
example the noncondensing turbine produces
25 MW. Without this turbine, auxiliary loads
would be even higher.
Beyond the steam cycle losses, the net ef-
fect of CCS on the entire combined cycle in-
cludes poorer turbine section efficiency and
capacity loss resulting from the gas turbine
exhaust gas recirculation modifications.
Dr. Justin Zachary (jzachary@bechtel
.com) is senior principal engineer for
Bechtel Power Corp., an ASME fellow, and
a POWER contributing editor.
Main
HP
Heat-recovery
steam generator
Hot reheat line
Cold reheat line
HP
IP LP
Noncondensing
turbine
To CO
2
capture plant
Extraction to
CO
2
plant
Generator
Main
HP
Heat-recovery
steam generator
Hot reheat line
Cold reheat line
HP
IP LP
Noncondensing
turbine
To CO
2
capture plant
Throttling valve
Generator
3. Steam extraction from IP/LP turbines. Source: Bechtel
4. Steam extraction from HP cold reheat steam line. Source: Bechtel
|
September 2009 56
FUELS
T
he power industry is experiencing a
growth period for new natural gasfired
generating capacity. Since the bottom
fell out of this market in 2005, new construc-
tion activity for gas capacity has grown at a
pace of 20+% per year, and though we do not
expect new construction activity in 2009 to
surpass last years, the number of projects un-
der development continues to grow. In early
summer, projects currently on the books for
kick-off by the end of this year could repre-
sent a 52% increase in construction kickoffs
over last year.
Declining Gas Price
Gives Projects a Push
Although the spotlight continues to shine
most brightly on renewable energy, natural
gas has once again become an attractive fuel
choice for new generating assets. For the past
few months, natural gas prices have been on a
downward trend across the nation. The elec-
tric power price for natural gas has declined
nearly $3/million Btu since November 2008.
One of the key factors behind lower prices
is an overall decrease in demand for the fuel.
Total natural gas consumption is projected to
decline by 2.3% in 2009, which includes an
8.2% drop among industrial users this year.
Lower demand has led to increased reserves
in storage, also contributing to lower prices.
For the week ending July 10, 2009, reserves
were at 2.89 trillion cubic feet, which is 19%
above the five-year average of 2.43 trillion
cubic feet. Lower demand for natural gas,
coupled with increased reserves, creates an
environment for price stability, which leads
to natural gas becoming an attractive fuel for
developers of new generating assets.
There are currently 155 simple-cycle and
combined-cycle units, representing more
than 20,000 MW of gas-fired capacity, un-
der construction in the U.S. All of these
units are part of projects that are scheduled
to begin commercial operation between
2009 and 2012. These projects represent al-
most 17,000 MW of installed capacity from
combined-cycle units and over $12 billion
in capital investment, while the simple-
cycle projects represent total spending of
$1.75 billion.
These projects include the 600-MW Bear
Garden project in Virginia being built by
Dominion Energy, which is scheduled for
completion in 2011, and the first 1,100-MW
phase of the 3,300-MW West County Ener-
gy Center in Florida being built by Florida
Power & Light Co., which is scheduled for
start-up later this summer.
So far this year, 47 gas-fired units, rep-
resenting almost 6,000 MW, are under con-
struction. These projects represent a total
investment of more than $4 billion. For the
balance of the year, there remain 95 units and
9,000 MW that have a construction kickoff
date scheduled (Figure 1). Of these, total
projects set to supply 1,700 MW are in the
advanced development stages, meaning that
permits and financing are in place. The re-
maining projects are still in development and
could fall prey to permitting delays or lack
of financing.
New Natural GasFired Projects
on an Upswing
Over the past decade, the development of new natural gasfired generating as-
sets has been similar to an amusement park roller coaster ridevery high
peaks and the lowest of lows, with fast and stomach-churning movement
between. Expect the ride to continue into the near future.
By Britt Burt, Industrial Info Resources
1. Explosive growth. Active natural gasfired projects have increased in all regions of the U.S., especially in the Southwest and on the
West Coast. Data shown in the graph are based on precommissioned projects in the planning, engineering, or construction stages of develop-
ment. Source: Industrial Info Resources
N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

u
n
i
t
s
Total unit count Total megawatt capacity
Great Lakes Mid-Atlantic Midwest New England Northeast Rockies Southeast Southwest West Coast
M
e
g
a
w
a
t
t
s
Market region
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
20,000
18,000
16,000
14,000
12,000
10,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
53 38 30 54 66 74 63 152 143
4,815 MW
6,503 MW
3,487 MW
3,899 MW
8,006 MW
7,494 MW
13,835 MW
19,232 MW
14,541 MW
|
September 2009 58
FUELS
More Gas Projects in the Queue
Beyond 2009, Industrial Info is so far track-
ing 423 units and 53,000 MW of gas-fired
generating capacity that is in the develop-
ment stages. This total capacity includes 74
projects valued at more than $20 billion and
scheduled for construction kickoff during
2010. As a component of these projects, 238
combined-cycle and simple-cycle units are
being proposed, which would result in the
addition of 25,000 MW of total capacity.
The vast majority of these projects are be-
ing developed as power projects, meaning
that their primary purpose is power genera-
tion. But there are greenfield plants and plant
expansions in industries such as petroleum re-
fining, petrochemical processing, and others
that include a power unit. One of the projects
scheduled for kickoff next year is JEAs $430
million Greenland Energy Center, a power
plant thats been proposed for off Phillips
Highway in Jacksonville, Fla. Construction is
anticipated to begin in early 2010, with sim-
ple-cycle operation expected in the summer
of 2011. There are future plans to convert the
plant to a combined-cycle facility.
At this juncture, it appears that the devel-
opment of new gas-fired generating units will
continue for the foreseeable future. Construc-
tion starts for over 17,000 MW are planned
for 2011, and 8,000 MW are on the books for
construction kickoff in 2012. As those start
dates get closer, it is expected that even more
projects will be identified that have construc-
tion activity planned to begin during this
same time period.
Number of Gas Projects
Accelerates
Overall, the outlook for development of new
gas-fired generating assets appears to be
promising. For the near term we are seeing a
downturn in electricity demand, as retail sales
of electricity in the industrial sector fell 12%
during the first quarter of 2009 compared to
2008. Total consumption of electricity is ex-
pected to fall 2% for the entire year of 2009
and then increase almost 1% during 2010.
However, there is anticipation in the industry
that beyond 2010 the U.S. will be in a po-
sition in which an additional 15,000 MW or
more will need to start commercial operation
each year in order to meet increased demand
for power. This new capacity will be needed
not only to meet future demand but also to
replace capacity lost from older units sched-
uled for retirement.
Another key issue driving the necessity for
new gas-fired generating capacity is the fact
that development of new coal-fired assets is
in limbo. Though it is true that a significant
amount of new coal-fired capacity is under
construction, the future of this sector of the
power industry is uncertain. During the past
two to three years, there have been multiple
cancellations and delays for new coal-fired
power projects. They have been caused in
large part by the increased capital costs of
building new units as well as uncertainty
over environmental mandates regarding
carbon dioxide emissions. This uncertainty,
coupled with the idea that any new capacity
from new nuclear plants is five to seven years
away, opens the door for gas-fired generation
to bridge a major gap.
Although the volume on new gas-fired
units has not reached the crescendo of the
early 2000s, we are entering another period
of growth for this sector of the industry.
Could it spell dj vu all over again?
Britt Burt (bburt@industrialinfo.com) is
vice president, power industry for
Industrial Info Resources. IIR (www
.industrialinfo.com) is a leading provider of
global market intelligence specializing in
the industrial process, heavy manufactur-
ing, and energy-related markets.
September 2009
|
S
ensing lines (also referred to as impulse
lines) are used to enable the location
of pressure transmitters away from the
process being measured so as to reduce the
temperature effects on the transmitters per-
formance and operating life. High ambient
temperatures can affect a transmitters me-
chanical components and also shorten the life
of its solid-state electronics. Locating a trans-
mitter away from the process can also reduce
the adverse effects of vibration and facilitate
access to the transmitter for replacement or
maintenance.
Figures 1 and 2 illustrate two different
views of sensing lines. As these figures show,
sensing lines connect a pressure transmitter
to the process. Depending on the application,
there may be one or two sensing lines for
each transmitter. Both liquid-filled and gas-
filled sensing lines are used in industrial pro-
cesses. Liquid-sensing lines typically contain
the process liquid or oil, depending on the
sensing lines design and application. Gas-
sensing lines typically contain steam, air, ni-
trogen, or other gases, and there is sometimes
a transition in sensing lines to another me-
dium, such as oil or water. A diaphragm, bel-
lows, or condensate pot is used in the sensing
line for the transition from one medium to
another.
Sensing lines are typically made of small-
diameter (on the order of 1.5 cm to 2 cm)
stainless steel, carbon steel, or copper tub-
ing in thicknesses of about 2 mm. Tubing is
preferred over piping because it can be in-
stalled in one piece, reducing the possibility
of leaks.
Sensing lines vary in length, depending on
the application. They can be as short as a few
meters or as long as 200 or 300 meters, and
average 10 to 50 meters. Because the length
of sensing lines affects the overall response
time of a pressure-sensing system, attempts
are often made to make sensing lines as short
as possible.
Sensing line installations are usually de-
signed to allow for the lines thermal expan-
sion and vibration without deformation, to
ensure drainage by gravity, and to allow the
lines to vent themselves. For liquid-sensing
lines, self-venting is accomplished by slop-
ing the sensing line downward so that any
gas or air in the line can vent to the pro-
cess. The slope of a sensing line might be
about 10 cm per meter. If the sensing line
cannot be sloped, a high-point vent must be
provided for liquid-sensing lines and a low-
point vent must be provided for gas-sensing
lines.
Sensing Line Problems
Sensing lines may encounter a number of
problems that can affect the accuracy and re-
sponse time of the pressure-sensing system.
Discussions of the typical problems found in
power plants follow.
Reference leg boil-off. The example in
Figure 3 shows how a reference leg boil-
off can cause sensing line problems. In the
figure, a differential-pressure transmitter is
being used to measure the fluid level in a
vessel containing water at the bottom and
steam at the top. Normally, the transmitter
Pressure-Sensing Line
Problems and Solutions
Improper pressure-sensing line design or installation is often found to be the
cause of poor sensing system accuracy and response time. Heres how to
identify and solve those pesky pressure sensor problems in short order.
By H.M. Hashemian, Analysis and Measurement Services Corp. and Dr. Jin Jiang, The University of Western Ontario
1. Get it right the first time. Example
of a proper pressure transmitter installation.
Source: Analysis and Measurement Services
Corp.
Pressure
transmitter
Equalizing
valve
Isolation
valve
Orice plate
Sensing
lines
Fluid
Root valves
Root valves
Field
Isolation
valves
Instrument
cabinet
Sensing
lines
Equalizing
valve
Electronics
Sensing
element
Transmitter
Power supply
and signal
conditioning
equipment
2. Isolation valves required. The typical pressure-sensing system design uses a com-
bination of isolation valves. Source: Analysis and Measurement Services Corp.
3. Steamy scene. Level measurement
instrumentation must include a condensate
pot if steam is present. Source: Analysis and
Measurement Services Corp.
Water
Steam
Condensate pot
Water column
in reference
leg
Pressure
transmitter
|
September 2009 60
is calibrated with the assumption that the
reference leg is filled with a water column
of known height. The condensate pot helps
ensure that this assumption is satisfied by
condensing the steam into water at a known
point in the system. During certain plant
transients or accident conditions, the ambi-
ent temperature may increase, and pressure
may decrease until it causes the water in the
reference leg to flash to steam. This causes
the level information to lose accuracy. One
remedy is to use isolation diaphragms or
isolation bellows in the sensing lines (Fig-
ure 4).
Level measurement problems. Level
measurement problems can occur when non-
condensable gases become dissolved in the
reference leg of sensing lines. Experience has
shown that the dissolved gases may reappear
during a rapid depressurization of the process
below a certain pressure. More specifically,
dissolved gases that accumulate over time
during normal operation can rapidly come
out of solution and displace water from the
reference leg. This reduces the reference leg
level and results in an erroneously high level
indication.
Voids, blockages, leaks, and freezing.
Voids, blockages, leaks, or freezing in sens-
ing lines can cause errors in pressure mea-
surements and can also affect the dynamic
response of the pressure-sensing system.
Although sensing lines are usually designed
to avoid these problems, they still occur in
industrial processes:
Voids. Air or gas entrapped in liquid-
sensing lines can cause false pressure
readings, sluggish response, and ex-
traneous noise as a result of acoustic
resonances. For example, in differential-
pressure measurements, an air pocket on
the low-pressure side can cause the pres-
sure indication to be higher than normal.
It can also add a delay in the transmission
of the pressure information. Purging air
from voids is difficult. Though one would
expect air pockets to dissolve in the liq-
uid under the high pressures common in
industrial pressure measurements, the
problem of voids persists.
Blockages. Blockages occur in sensing
lines when the chemicals that are used to
treat the water and sludge solidify or when
other contaminants accumulate. They also
occur due to obstructions caused by isola-
tion and equalizing valves that are improp-
erly aligned or seated or due to sensing
lines becoming crimped. A partial block-
age is detrimental only to the dynamic
response time of the pressure-sensing sys-
tem and does not normally affect the static
output of the transmitter. But when the
blockage completely blocks the line, the
pressure information is totally lost.
Leakage. Pressure-sensing lines provide
many opportunities for leakage to occur.
A sensing line may have a root valve, one
or more isolation valves, an equalizing
valve, or other connections that can give
rise to leaks, especially under high work-
ing pressures. Any significant leakage or
loss of fluid in a sensing line can cause a
false pressure indication.
Freezing. In cold weather, freezing can
occur in fluid sensing lines if the sensing
lines heat tracing, which is used to pre-
vent freezing of the fluid, is aged or dam-
aged. This problem can go undetected if
the freezing causes a normal operating
pressure to be locked into the system.
Common Sensing Lines
Redundant pressure transmitters in some pro-
cesses sometimes share a sensing line. The
problem with common sensing lines is that
they can cause a common mode failure if
there is a leak, blockage, or void in the com-
mon leg.
In addition to common mode problems,
the dynamic response times of a group of
pressure transmitters that share a sensing line
may be dominated by the response time of
the most compliant transmitter on the com-
mon leg. The most compliant transmitter in
most cases could be the slowest-responding
transmitter. This could cause all transmitters
on the common sensing line to be as slow as
the most compliant transmitter.
Noise from Sensing Lines
Noise arises in sensing lines because of pro-
cess fluctuations, vibration in the sensing line,
acoustic resonances, steam line resonances,
control system malfunctions, and resonances
caused by undissolved air pockets in liquid-
filled sensing lines. To reduce the effect of
noise, mechanical snubbers are sometimes
used in pressure-sensing lines. Snubbers re-
duce the effect of noise by increasing the dy-
namic response time of the pressure-sensing
system. Therefore, they must be used cau-
tiously in those cases where response time is
important.
An alternative to snubbers is electronic
low-pass filters with adjustable response
times. These filters can provide any level
of noise reduction; however, like snub-
bers, they increase the systems response
time. One advantage of electronic filters is
that they remove not only any mechanical
or acoustic noise in the system but also any
electrical noise. Another advantage is that
they can be designed to have a precise roll-
off frequency.
The disadvantage of electronic filters is
Isolation
diaphragm
Reference
leg
Pressure
transmitter
Liquid vessel
Isolation
diaphragm
Process Sensing line Pressure transmitter
Sensing element
Change in
process
pressure
Sensing line
length = L
Spring
Compliance =
Change in volume of transmitter
Change in applied pressure
=
Cubic centimeters
Bar
4. Isolated systems. Liquid-level mea-
surement requires isolation diaphragms in the
sensing lines. Source: Analysis and Measure-
ment Services Corp.
5. Easy calculation. Transmitter compliance is determined by the physical installation of
the component and its volume. Source: Analysis and Measurement Services Corp.
Big Ideas!
Big Results!
BWPaTH^da8STPbfXcWCW^dbP]Sb^UBT]X^a
4gTRdcXeTbP]S>_TaPcX]V<PX]cT]P]RT
P]S4]VX]TTaX]V;TPSTabUa^\cWT?^fTa
6T]TaPcX^]8]Sdbcah
0ALL lR PAPR8-
PLAN NW 1 PAR1l0lPA1.
12
May 18 20, 2010 | Baltimore, MD
Baltimore Convention Center
8uhmit ahstracts at
www.e|ectricpowerexpo.com
hy 8eptemher 30, 2009.
|
September 2009 62
that, unlike snubbers, they do not protect the
sensing element of the pressure transmitter
from mechanical fatigue caused by the ex-
cessive high-frequency vibration that process
pressure fluctuations impose.
Sensing Lines Effect on Pressure
Transmitters Response Time
The response time of a liquid-filled sens-
ing line has two major components: a sonic
delay and a hydraulic delay. The sonic de-
lay corresponds to the time that it takes for
the pressure signal to travel at the speed of
sound through a completely filled (solid)
sensing line from the process to the trans-
mitter. A water-filled sensing line of about
30 meters has about 21 milliseconds of sonic
delay. The sonic delay is also referred to as
acoustic delay.
The hydraulic delay in a sensing line de-
pends mainly on the volume of fluid that
must move in the sensing line in order to
bring a pressure change from the process to
the transmitter. Figure 5 shows a sensing line
leading to a pressure transmitter that has a
sensing element that must move a portion or
all of the distance x in order to indicate the
applied pressure. The distance x traveled by
the sensing element depends on the pressure
transmitters design.
In some pressure transmitters, such as
some manufactured by Rosemount, the sens-
ing element is a diaphragm that moves very
little to indicate the applied pressure. In other
transmitters, such as some manufactured by
Barton, the sensing element is a bellows that
must move an appreciable amount to indicate
the applied pressure. The movement of the
sensing element requires a corresponding
movement of the fluid in the sensing line.
Therefore, the longer the sensing line, the
more time is required for the fluid to move
the required distance and also overcome the
additional resistance to flow.
The distance x was used to illustrate the
relationship between sensing line delays and
a pressure transmitters design characteris-
tics. In reality, however, the controlling fac-
tor in a sensing lines hydraulic delay is the
volume change inside the transmitter, not the
distance x.
Another controlling factor is the pressure
that is required to induce the volume change.
The parameter that combines these two fac-
tors is the transmitter compliance, which is
defined as the ratio of the transmitter volume
change to the pressure change that is required
to attain the volume change. Transmitter
compliance is a characteristic parameter of
a transmitter that should be specified by the
manufacturer.
Table 1 shows the compliances of three
different pressure transmitters. For the trans-
mitter with a larger compliance, a larger
volume of fluid must move through the sens-
ing line in order to indicate a given pressure
change. For such transmitters, the response
time of the overall pressure-sensing system
from the process to the transmitter output is
a strong function of the sensing lines length
and diameter.
Furthermore, the response time of trans-
mitters with larger compliances is more sig-
nificantly affected by any void or obstruction
in the sensing line. Figure 6 shows how the
response times of representative pressure
transmitters are increased as a function of
sensing line blockages. This data was ob-
tained in laboratory experiments in which
a snubber (Figure 7) was used to simulate
sensing line blockages for the tests. It is un-
derstood that the snubber may not correctly
simulate the effect of a real blockage in a
pressure-sensing line. As such, the data in
Figure 6 only serves as an illustration of the
effect of sensing line blockage on transmit-
ter response time.
It is obvious from the data in Figure 6 that
different transmitters are affected differently
by blockages, depending on their compli-
ance value. For example, the response time
of the Barton transmitter shown in Figure 6
increases by almost 200% when the blockage
advances to near 65% of the diameter, while
the response time of the Rosemount transmit-
ter increases by only about 10% for the same
amount of blockage.
Figure 8 shows power spectral densities
(PSDs) for a pressure-sensing system that
was tested in a laboratory experimental set-
up with and without air in the sensing line.
The effect of the void in the sensing line is
manifested by a resonance on the PSD and
a lower break frequency. At this lower break
frequency the PSD roll-off begins measuring
that the transmitters response time is larger
with the void in the system.
Figure 9 compares two PSDs for a pres-
sure transmitter tested in a power plant be-
fore and after the sensing line was cleared of
a blockage. Clearly, the blockage in this case
increased the transmitters response time by
at least an order of magnitude.
Validation of Noise Analysis
Technique for Online Detection of
Sensing Line Problems
The validity of the noise analysis technique
for online detection of sensing line block-
ages has been established by numerous
laboratory and in-plant demonstration tests
Barton
Foxboro
Rosemount
Blockage (% of original I.D.)
30 40 50 60 70
R
e
s
p
o
n
s
e

t
i
m
e

i
n
c
r
e
a
s
e
s

(
%
)
200
160
120
80
40
0
Cap Sealing disk
Plunger Bushing Body
Frequency (Hz)
P
S
D

(
%
H
z
)
1E+05
1E+03
1E+01
1E01
0.1 1 10 100
Sensing
line with
void
3 Hz
Manufacturer Model
Compliance
(cm
3
/bar)
Barton 764 9.51
Foxboro E13DM 0.12
Rosemount 1153RC7 0.01
Table 1. Examples of compliance
values for representative pressure
transmitters. Source: Analysis and Mea-
surement Services Corp.
6. Different responses. The response
time differences between different transmit-
ter designs with a sensing line blockage can
be profound. This figure is based on laboratory
test data. Source: Analysis and Measurement
Services Corp.
7. Give a blockage the cold shoulder. Snubbers are used to simulate sensing line
blockages. Source: Analysis and Measurement Services Corp.
8. Sensing an air leak. The power
spectral density (PSD) for a pressure-sensing
system can identify air leakage in a sensing
line. Source: Analysis and Measurement Ser-
vices Corp.
September 2009
|
involving a variety of pressure transmitters.
(See H.M. Hashemian, Long-Term Perfor-
mance and Aging Characteristics of Nuclear
Plant Pressure Transmitters, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, NUREG/CR-5851
[March 1993]). Table 2 shows representative
results of such tests that involved a Barton
pressure transmitter. The transmitter was
tested alone, then with 30 meters of sensing
line tubing, and finally with a snubber in the
sensing line. In each case, the response time
of the transmitter and the attached sensing
line was measured by the conventional ramp
method and by the noise analysis technique.
The noise was generated for this experiment
in a laboratory test loop that was designed
to simulate process fluctuations for research
purposes.
As shown by these results, the noise anal-
ysis technique identifies the response time of
the transmitter and its sensing line with good
accuracy and accounts for the effect of sens-
ing line length and the blockage (simulated
by the snubbers) on the response time.
Solving Sensing-Line Problems
Remedies that remove voids and/or block-
ages in sensing lines are to periodically blow
down, back fill, or drain the sensing lines.
Another solution is to test or monitor for
the presence of voids or blockages in the
sensing lines online. This can be done by us-
ing the noise analysis technique for in-situ
testing of pressure transmitters response
times described earlier. In fact, one of the
main advantages of response time testing
with the noise analysis technique is that
its results will include the effects of sens-
ing lines. That is, any response time result
for pressure transmitters that is obtained by
the noise analysis technique will inherently
account for the length and diameter of sens-
ing lines as well as for any blockages, voids,
leaks, or freezing that may be present in the
sensing lines.
H.M. Hashemian (hash@ams-corp
.com) is president and CEO of Analysis
and Measurement Services Corp. Dr. Jin
Jiang (jjiang@uwo.ca) is a professor of
electrical and computer engineering at
the University of Western Ontario.
Transmitter tested Ramp testing Noise analysis testing
Transmitter tested alone (negligible sensing line length) 0.12 0.17
Transmitter tested with 30 meters of sensing line tubing 0.27 0.28
Transmitter tested with a snubber on the sensing line 3.00 2.94
Table 2. Representative results of validation of noise analysis tech-
nique for response time testing of pressure transmitters and associated
sensing lines. Source: Analysis and Measurement Services Corp.
The UDI Combined-Cycle/Gas Turbine (CCGT) Data Set contains basic
ownership, location information, and unit equipment details for simple-
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New! UDI
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Identify gas turbine installations by model
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Sensing
line with
no blockage
Sensing
line with
blockage
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9. Line blockages also sensed. The
power spectral density (PSD) from online
testing of a Barton transmitter can identify a
sensing line blockage. Source: Analysis and
Measurement Services Corp.
|
September 2009 64
HUMAN RESOURCES
T
he abrupt and unexpected global eco-
nomic downturn has forced many indus-
trial companies to make gut-wrenching
decisions about how to manage their labor
costs. In almost every business sector, com-
panies have been forced to curtail production,
close plants, and reduce staff just to survive.
Such decisions obviously affect plant person-
nel, but the effects ripple throughout the com-
munity where the plant is located.
After making the decision to reduce staff,
a company faces additional financial con-
sequences: perhaps hundreds of millions of
dollars in cash payments for severance pack-
ages and voluntary early retirement program
pools for key management positions.
Loss of key employees further reduces
the organizations overall performance be-
cause severance packages usually target the
most senior and experienced personnel. The
spiral continues because loss of these key
employees substantially handicaps a com-
panys ability to respond to the inevitable
upturn in business.
Turn a Negative into a Positive
When companies hire employees, it often is
simply to get work done. Little thought is
given to the life-cycle cost of that decision.
Many companies hire employees on the
basis of the hourly wage plus some benefit
cost multiplier. However, the total life-cycle
cost of a position should be evaluated prior
to making hiring decisions. For example,
the actual cost of hiring and outfitting a new
mid-level manager for one company was
50% higher than the employees $60,000
annual salary. At a 4% inflation rate, the
average total fixed cost of hiring and keep-
ing this employee for 30 years could easily
exceed $5,000,000.
So how can companies optimize the life-
cycle cost of human capital? These nine steps
outline a process with proven results:
1. Identify your companys true core compe-
tencies.
2. Evaluate all jobs against the core compe-
tency criteria.
3. Analyze the companys noncore job per-
formance excellence.
4. Benchmark current noncore jobs for per-
formance.
5. Develop a business case for outsourced
job function candidates.
6. Select a contracting strategy that will de-
liver continuously improved performance
and results.
7. Select a qualified contractor.
8. Develop contractor key performance indi-
cators (KPIs) that will allow you to objec-
tively measure results and performance.
9. Implement the performance-based contract.
To minimize the fixed labor cost, com-
panies should evaluate where they need to
invest in labor to create and maintain a com-
petitive advantage for their business and then
determine what activities can be performed
more efficiently by someone outside of the
company.
1. Identify Your Companys True
Core Competencies
A best practice is to hire only employees
who contribute to a businesss core com-
petencies. The problem we often see while
dealing with hundreds of clients is that you
can emotionally convince yourself that al-
most any job is core to your business. To
avoid this problem, a companys strategic
leadership team should establish objective
criteria to determine what is core to the cur-
rent and future business.
Here is an example of a simple test using
objective criteria that can be used to deter-
mine if activities or job positions are core to
a business:
They increase market size or access to
new markets.
They provide a unique or significant con-
tribution to the end product value.
They provide a barrier that is expensive or
hard for competitors to imitate or recreate.
If an activity or job function does not
provide any of these benefits, it should be
considered noncore and be a candidate for
outsourcing.
Outsourcing noncore functions is a strate-
Optimizing the Life-Cycle Cost
of Human Capital
Is it possible to develop a business model whereby an economic dip can be
used to a market advantage? One client uses a sports analogy to describe
this opportunity: We are between seasons, and we have an opportunity
to recruit and retool our team for the future. This just might be the right
time to retool your human resources processes to avoid past hiring mis-
takes and adopt new hiring practices that will maximize the life-cycle val-
ue of your companys human capital.
By Bradley K. Cunic, Fluor Corp.
Many companies hire employees on the basis
of the hourly wage plus some benefit cost
multiplier. However, the total life-cycle cost
of a position should be evaluated prior to
making hiring decisions.
September 2009
|
HUMAN RESOURCES
gic decision that has significant impacts on
short- and long-term company objectives.
Just because job functions are noncore does
not mean they are unimportant. In most cases
it is just the opposite.
For example, putting in a new manufactur-
ing line, maintaining production equipment,
and performing root cause failure analysis
are all critical noncore jobs. Because these
functions are critical, doesnt it make sense
to hire experts for whom this type of work is
a core competency? This concept is almost
never fully understood and is the reason for
most outsourcing failures. Remember, non-
core jobs do not contribute to:
Increasing market size or access to new
markets.
Providing a unique or significant contribu-
tion to the end product value.
Providing a barrier that is expensive or
hard for competitors to imitate or recreate
(or whatever criteria you develop as core
to your business).
My experience is that most indirect-cost
job functions do not past this test. However,
many companies dilute their ability to invest
in core business functions because they are
paying too much for noncore fixed cost jobs.
2. Evaluate All Jobs Against the
Core Competency Criteria
In addition to the test in step one, another
way to determine if labor costs are exces-
sively high is to evaluate your capability to
deliver at best practice levels. Many compa-
nies have invested for years in developing
capability in noncore business activities and
functions, and eventually they have become
quite competent in some or many of those
functions.
A simple way to determine the balance
of noncore and core business activities is to
evaluate whether a company has the capa-
bility to deliver world-class services at the
lowest cost by doing the following. List your
core competenciessuch as engineering,
contractor management, and maintenance
managementdown the left side of a table.
Add three more columns, and given them the
following headers to identify the source of
the competency: Owner, Service Partner, and
Original Equipment Manufacturer/Vendor.
Rank each core competency on a 1 to 5 scale
with 5 representing world-class perfor-
mance, 1 representing industry laggard,
and 3 representing the industry norm. Re-
peat the exercise with noncore competen-
cies.
If the scores for noncore functions are
equal to or greater than those for core func-
tion, you are overinvesting in noncore job
functions and underinvesting in your core
business.
3. Analyze the Companys Noncore
Job Performance Excellence
Simply possessing a capability is only one
factor to consider. Many companies have
pockets of excellence but cannot deploy that
capability throughout the enterprise. The
same approach as used above can help deter-
mine where the ability to deliver lowest-cost
services throughout an enterprise resides.
Create another table and list owner compe-
tencies down one column, as before. Then title
three more columns: Methods and Procedures,
Relevant Experience, and Bench Strength.
Rate each owner competency from 1 to 5,
with 5 for ready for manufacturing enterprise
rollout, 1 for industry laggard, and 3 for a
pocket of excellence but needs development
or investment. Repeat the exercise with your
service partners competencies.
Owners should have exceptionally high
marks in job functions that are core to their
business, while service providers should
have exceptionally high scores for job func-
tions that are their core competencies. If not,
you may need to reevaluate how essential but
noncore competencies are managed in your
organization.
4. Benchmark Current Noncore
Jobs for Performance
Benchmarking in some of the highest per-
forming companies in the world has shown
that the best opportunities to optimize the
cost of human capital and company perfor-
mance are mostly in the indirect or noncore
part of the business. Because of the nature
of fixed indirect cost and noncore services,
companies are usually hesitant about in-
vesting too much money in these areas, and
rightly so. The result is typically untrained
personnel and high turnover, inefficient job
performance, and excessive cost.
Even when they realize this, many com-
panies are unconvinced that outsourcing
to service companies that do have specific
functions as a core competency is the best
way to lower the cost of human capital.
Therefore, a more objective approach should
be initiated to quantify the opportunities in
terms of dollars.
5. Develop a Business Case for
Outsourcing Job Functions
A cost analysis should also be performed to
determine the baseline for noncore job per-
formance cost. The performance benchmark
data and cost baselines are then integrated
with production performance costs and
losses to calculate an economic gap analysis.
The gap analysis will act as a roadmap to de-
termine the value of improved indirect cost
optimization for each category of cost and to
prioritize optimization efforts.
Once a proper root cause analysis has been
performed on all major performance gaps, an
improvement plan can be put in place to cal-
culate the benefits of improved performance
and to optimize indirect costs. The options at
this point are to determine if investments to
remedy deficiencies provide the best return
for the money or if there is an opportunity
to team with a service provider that has the
best practices in a given function to optimize
business performance.
6. Select a Contracting Strategy
That Will Deliver Continuously Im-
proved Performance and Results
If you determine that outsourcing might be
the best way to enhance business perfor-
mance, you should determine what should be
outsourced, select the best contractor to meet
your needs, and determine the type of contract
you should have with your contractor.
An effective performance contractone
in which the contractor is rewarded based
on achieving specific owner business tar-
getsmotivates contractors to help achieve
the owners business goals and objectives
through financial incentives. Often, the in-
centives flow down through the contractors
organization to reward employees at all lev-
els (Figure 1).
7. Select a Qualified Contractor
Selecting the right contractor maximizes the
benefits of outsourcing while eliminating or
minimizing the need to self-perform a task.
Leveraging contractor expertise has many
1. Balancing act. Consider different
contracting strategies when selecting a con-
tractor that will partner with you to optimize
business performance, lower life-cycle labor
costs, and properly distribute the projects fi-
nancial risk. Source: Fluor Corp.
Low
Low
High
High
O
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s

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i
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k

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c
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s
t
Contractors incentive
to improve cost and performance
Time and materials Cost plus xed fee
Cost plus variable fee Lump sum
Not to exceed Performance contracting
Basic contract types
|
September 2009 66
HUMAN RESOURCES
benefits, including access to highly skilled,
scarce resources.
Other benefits justifying decisions to out-
source plant services using a performance
contract typically include these:
Variable rather than fixed labor costs
Increased labor flexibility
Improved productivity
Access to a broader range of skills and
expertise
Broader, more effective knowledge base
Reduced cost for training processes and
management systems
Improved focus of internal resources on
core competencies
Another problem that companies face is
the very concept of outsourcing. For every
success story, there are many horror stories
about losing jobs, cutting peoples salaries,
poor performance, loss of control, and more.
Most outsourcing failures are a result of poor
management decisions, work process, and
misalignment of expectations between the
owner and the contractor.
Too often, once the decision to outsource
is made, the process is turned over to the
procurement department, which puts the out-
sourcing contract out for lowest price bid
like a commodity. Some companies even go
as far as putting the bid on reverse auction
to further lower the price. However, selecting
a service provider with the necessary knowl-
edge, skills, business processes, tools, and
methodologies does not lend itself to typical
procurement practices such as issuing a re-
quest for proposal and awarding the scope of
work to the lowest bidder.
A company needs to perform a thorough
evaluation of a contractors ability to substan-
tially lower life-cycle cost. A contractor that
will have a significant impact on an owners
business needs to be selected much as youd
choose a business partner. In fact, that is
exactly what a strategic performance-based
contractor will be: a partner who shares in
the business risks and in the business results
or profits.
The owners due diligence on a strategic
contractor should include:
History of performance contracting with
similar projects
References from past, recent, and current
clients
Documented methods and systems
World-class safety record
Proven computer-based training programs
Change management processes and ex-
pertise
Subject matter expert resources
Business risk management process
Executive management commitment
Financial stability
Strong human resources/industrial rela-
tions resources and experience
8. Develop Contractor
Key Performance Indicators
Strategic performance contracts require a dif-
ferent contracting strategy. Strategic scopes
of work should be directly tied to business
results with KPIs. To impact business results,
scopes of work typically fall into three cat-
egories for a process or manufacturing facil-
ity: increasing revenue, lowering operating
cost, and maximizing assets.
Increasing revenue:
Plant availability
Quality throughput
Lowering operating cost:
Material cost
Inventory costobsolescence and turn-
over
Expediting cost
Contracting/compliance cost
Labor cost
Rework cost
Maximizing assets:
Improve production plan adherence
Increase return on production assets
Improve efficiency per labor hour
The key to successful performance con-
tracting is to understand the net effect, im-
pact, or benefit that a contracted scope of
work will have on long-term business results.
Many times, assets are mined, maintenance
is deferred, and key people with essential
knowledge and skills are let go or forced to
leave in order to deliver short-term benefits.
The cost to restore the asset, repair collateral
damage because of deferred maintenance,
and/or replace knowledge and skills can re-
sult in adding back exponential cost to sta-
bilize production, quality, and safety in an
operating facility.
The owner must be able to balance the
long-term effect of any benefits received from
a performance-based contract. Performance
contracts should play a part in a companys
long-term strategy and should be structured
for a minimum of three to five years to ensure
that the contractor delivers sustainable busi-
ness results that do not undermine the com-
panys future profits.
9. Implement the Performance
Contract
Once the contractor has been selected and
the KPIs and performance metrics have been
mutually agreed upon, the execution of a per-
formance contract is typically implemented
in phases. The three most common phases
are:
Mobilization
Implementation
Steady-state continuous improvement
Mobilization is the process of getting the
contractors and owners team into place
and is critical to project success. The team
should plan and allow for the proper mobi-
lization of the right resources. The owner
needs to thoroughly interview the contrac-
tors essential on-site management team.
Although they are not part of the owners
organization, the owner will ultimately rely
on them to deliver the expected results of
the agreement. The owner needs to be rea-
sonably sure that the contractors team will
work well with the companys. On the flip
side, the owner needs to be responsive if
the contractor questions the fit of someone
on the companys team. One bad apple can
spoil the whole bunch, regardless of who
owns the apple.
Implementation is the process of setting
up best practices that germinate the im-
provement process. Almost all owners un-
derestimate the effort and resources that are
required to change the way a company does
businessand may have done business for
more than 50 years. People, culture, meth-
odologies, processes, procedures, and pro-
tocol are all affected by change. On a major
project, expect the implementation process to
take six months to a year or more. Even then,
change will not stop; people will become
accustomed to the idea that continuous im-
provement depends on constant change.
Steady-state continuous improvement is
the mature phase of a project, when the divi-
dends of performance contracting start to pay
off. In the early stages of implementation,
low-hanging fruit savings and improvements
are realized. However, it is during the steady-
state continuous improvement phase that sus-
tainable step changes will occur.
Many top-performing companies
have implemented strategic performance
contracting as a long-term competitive
strategy. In addition, many of these own-
ers are leveraging the contractors resources
and expertise to deliver additional benefits
through such programs as Systematic Fail-
ure Elimination and Profit-Centered Main-
tenance while lowering their cost of human
capital.
Bradley K. Cunic (brad.cunic
@fluor.com) is an executive director of
Fluor Corp.
Security
Process
Automation
& Control
Wireless &
Networking
Enterprise
Integration
Safety
S
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Energy &
Environment
Automation and Control
Technology and Technique
ISA EXPO 2009 Endorsing Organizations:
Discover the latest developments, advancements, and practices in key instrumentation, automation,
and control technologies at ISA EXPO 2009, the most significant conference, exhibition, and educa-
tional event for manufacturing professionals. Learn from world-renowned experts who are defining the
next generation of technology, speak directly with the leaders who are changing the way businesses
operate their plants and produce their products, and benefit from the lessons learned by others.
Hear all sides of the automation story at North America's only unbiased, comprehensive
automation and control exchange.
Register now for ISA EXPO 2009 in Houston, TX, 6-8 October at
www.isa.org/isaexpo. Enter promotion code W12326 for
FREE Exhibition Registration.
|
September 2009 68
NEW PRODUCTS
TO POWER YOUR BUSINESS
Energy Efficient Refrigerant Dryers
Industrial productivity solutions provider Atlas Copco
Compressors introduced a new generation of integrated
refrigerant dryers for use with the companys GA, GA+, and
GA variable-speed drive 50 to 125 hp oil-injected screw
compressors. Compared to conventional dryers with similar
cooling capacity, the new R410A refrigerant dryers (ID 95-285)
reduce direct power consumption by up to 40%, even at full
load. This was achieved through the introduction of R410A
refrigerant and by optimizing the design of key components,
including the refrigerant compressor and heat exchanger with
low pressure drop, the company said.
The air-to-air heat exchanger reduces energy consumption
by reheating the outowing refrigerated air. This helps
eliminate the risk of corrosion damage by preventing
condensation from forming on the outside of the compressed
air piping. Every unit is also equipped with a zeroair loss
electronic drain, which eliminates the potential of wasting
compressed air, making the system more reliable and
energy efcient. Other unique features are available to save
installation and engineering time, including an optional DD/
PD integrated two-stage air ltration system combined with
the condensate separator inside the unit canopy. When all of
these components are integrated, they minimize the chance of
air leaks and costly pressure drops. A R410A integrated dryer
retrot kit is available. (www.atlascopco.com)
Advanced Diagnostic Field Communicator
Emersons new 475 Field Communicator extends beyond device conguration
functionality to provide advanced device diagnostic and troubleshooting
capabilities in the eld and on the bench so users can work more efciently.
Quick boot-up and fast operating time mean that jobs can be performed
quickly and easily, while longer battery life ensures daysnot hoursof
operation. The intrinsically safe 475 Field Communicator supports HART,
WirelessHART, and Foundaton Fieldbus devices. The unit features Bluetooth
communications and a full-color graphical user interface that displays
trend charts, gauges, and graphics available in device descriptions. Up
to 1,000 device congurations can be stored or transmitted wirelessly
between the communicator and PC for printing and storage.
(www.emersonprocess.com)
Liquid Ring Vacuum Pump
and Compressor
Gardner Denver Nash launched the NASH Vectra XL 750
as part of its liquid ring pump and compressor series.
The NASH Vectra XL 750 offers vacuum pump operation
of up to 28.5 in. HgA and compressor operation to
30 psig. It features O-ring sealing and ductile iron
construction plus single-point inlet and discharge
connections, which eliminate need for manifolds,
thereby simplifying process piping.
(www.gdnash.com)
Hosted by: Organized by:
February 3 5, 2010
Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.
For more information on RETECH 2010
please visit www.retech2010.com or contact:
Hunter Jones
713.343.1875
hunterj@tradefairgroup.com
Tom Weirich, ACORE
202.777.7582
weirich@acore.org
S
a
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t
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September 2009 70
NEW PRODUCTS
Inclusion in New Products does not imply endorsement by POWER magazine.
Electromagnetic Flowmeter
for Water/Wastewater Markets
ABB Instrumentation launched the WaterMaster series, a
new range of electromagnetic owmeters that is specically
targeted at water and wastewater markets. Part of the
FlowMaster portfolio, the series includes the WaterMaster
magmeter, which is available in sizes 1.5 to 84 inches. For
sizes up to 8 inches, the new unit incorporates an innovative
octagonal sensor design, which improves ow prole and
reduces upstream and downstream piping requirements.
All WaterMaster sensors have a rugged construction, are
inherently submersible (IP68, NEMA 6P), and may be buried.
Advanced features built into the new owmeters include a
self-calibrating transmitter, which functions every 45 seconds
without interruption to the ow measurement. Also included
is the ABB Human Machine Interface, which simplies
operation, maintenance, and training. (www.abb.com)
Oxygen and Combustibles Transmitter for Coal-Fired Applications
Emerson Process Management has enhanced its Rosemount Analytical OCX8800 oxygen and
combustibles transmitter for advanced functionality and reliability in coal-red applications, helping
to improve burner efciency and reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. The device, which features oxygen
and combustibles measurement capabilities in a single design, now includes an improved sensor
technology that reduces drift.
Adaptable to any oxygen and combustibles installation, the enhanced
OCX8800 is NEMA 4X-rated for weather and corrosion resistance and is
rated as explosion-proof. The device can be congured for general
purpose installations, or it can be congured for hazardous area
locations in which CSA/FM Class 1, Zone 1 ATEX II 2 G EExd and
IECex ratings are required. The proprietary software includes new
features that minimize COe cell degradation for improved
reliability with fewer calibrations. The OCX8800 now also
supports Foundation Fieldbus and HART Communication.
(www.emersonprocess.com)
D/P Gauge for
HighStatic Pressure Applications
The new Ashcroft Type 5503 differential pressure (D/P) gauge
provides reliable lowdifferential pressure measurement
in high-static, wet-wet pressure applications. Equipped
with wetted materials of 316SS, Monel, or Hastelloy C,
the rugged Type 5503 D/P pressure gauge is specically
designed to monitor a wide variety of caustic liquids and
gases. Four-inch and 6-inch dial face versions are available
in ranges from 0/3 (or 0/100 in H
2
O) through 0/400 psid.
These offer optional features such as 3,625-psi static
pressure containment, liquid ll, electrical contacts, and a
choice of mounting hardware. (www.ashcroft.com)
September 2009
|
Opportunities in Operations and Maintenance,
Project Engineering and Project Management,
Business and Project Development,
First-line Supervision to Executive Level Positions.
Employer pays fee. Send resumes to:
POWER PROFESSIONALS
P.O. Box 87875
Vancouver, WA 98687-7875
email: dwood@powerindustrycareers.com
(360) 260-0979 l (360) 253-5292
www.powerindustrycareers.com
Constellation Energy Power Generation West Region:
Open Positions in Utah and Central California for Plant Manager,
Production Manager, Maintenance Manager and O&M Manager
Constellation Energy, a FORTUNE 500 company, is seeking applicants
for Plant Manager, Production Manager, Maintenance Manager and
O&M Manager positions.
Responsible for overall management of operation and maintenance
of the electric generating facilities including:
0perate and maintain facilities to maximize plant proftaoilit].
Develop timetaole for most cost-effective outages and identif] other
forms of emplo]ee, production and maintenance optimization.
Estaolish, maintain and enforce plant operating procedures within
company guidelines, including implementation of Environmental
Compliance Polic]. Ensure compliance with all plant specifc Federal,
State and Local Environmental, Health, and Safety regulations.
Estaolish plant revenue and expense oudgets in conjunction with
partnership. Defne capital requirements and develops appropriate
fnancial justifcation for expenditures.
Utilize strong leadership and effective team ouilding skills.
About Constellation Energy
Constellation Energ] (www.constellation.comj is a leading supplier of
energ] products and services to wholesale and retail electric and natural gas
customers. lt owns a diversifed feet of generating units located throughout
the United 8tates, totaling approximatel] 9,OOO megawatts of generating
capacit], and is among the leaders pursuing the development of new nuclear
plants in the United States.
Visit constellation.com/careers for more information.
Xcel Energy, one of the ten largest electricity and natural gas companies in
America, has a challenging leadership position at our ofces in Minneapolis,
MN. The Manager, System Protection will have responsibility for all regulatory
compliance regarding the maintenance and tracking documentation for
the Bulk Electrical System protection relaying devices as well as all other
transmission and distribution relay protection devices not covered by
regulatory compliance. This position manages up to 75 employees consisting
of both bargaining and non-bargaining employees. This individual will apply
visionary and strategic leadership to implement and maintain a competitive
focus for system protection systems utilized within the electric delivery
system.
Qualied candidates will possess:
B8EE or AA8 degree or diploma in Electronic Technolog], Applied
Electronic Engineering or Applied Electrical Engineering.
Ninimum of 1O ]ears of experience in the design, operation,
maintenance and testing of protection equipment and
protection systems.
Two ]ears of previous management or team lead experience in
system protection operations or electric operations preferred.
ln-depth and specialized technical skills and knowledge in s]stem
protection construction, operation and maintenance procedures.
Familiarit] with Nanual of 8afe Practices, 08HA and hE8C
requirements and specialized knowledge of union agreements.
Xcel Energy offers a competitive total rewards program including pay,
benets, training and development. We offer a challenging work environment
and we value diversity. Apply at www.xcelenergy.com following the career
opportunities link and indicating position posting numoer U0-Nh-O458
or email your resume to: Amanda.L.Sirek@xcelenergy.com. Application
deadline is 0ctooer 2, 2OO9 at 5 p.m. CDT. E0E
Manager, System Protection
Minneapolis, MN
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
PIMA COUNTY (TUCSON) AZ
DESIGN/BUILD/OPERATE RFQ
Pima County Arizona is seeking Statements of
services for a new Power Generation and Energy
Recovery Facility.
and commission a new 3 to 4 MW facility utilizing
renewable energy digester gas (methane) from
the Ina Road Wastewater Reclamation Facility. The
schedule is to have a fully operational facility by
November 2012, and thereafter operate the facility
under a minimum 15 year service agreement. The
established design and construction budget for this
project is $21 million.
All information regarding this solicitation
including deadlines and background information is
available online at: http://www.pima.gov/procure/
ifbrfp-dc.htm . Any questions regarding this RFQ
can be emailed to: Jerome.rizzo@pima.gov
|
September 2009 72
READER SERVICE NUMBER 202 READER SERVICE NUMBER 200
READER SERVICE NUMBER 201
DIANE HAMMES
Phone: 713-343-1885
Fax: 832-251-8963
dianeh@powermag.com
POWER
Classifieds
0909 Power Classified.indd 72 8/18/09 1:09:52 PM
September 2009
|
Solar Taurus 60
7 Units (Gen 1) & (Gen 2)
All Natural Gas
Low Nox 25 ppm
Mobile PCR U.G. Switch gear
60 Hz 13.8 kV
50 Hz Conversion Available
Mid America Engine, Inc.
662-895-8444 Fax: 662-895-8228
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Art: asigler@maegen.com
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We buy and sell transformers, boilers, steam tur-
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0909 Power Classified.indd 73 8/18/09 1:09:35 PM
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September 2009 74
PRODUCT Showcase
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September 2009 74
NEED CABLE? FROM STOCK
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Advertisers index
Enter reader service numbers on the FREE Product Information Source card in this issue.
Page
Reader
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Number Page
Reader
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Air systems Limited 13 10
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Ashross 16 12
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Babcock & Wilcox Cover 4 2
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Banner engineering 45 24
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Bechtel 27
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CH2MHiLL 19 14
www.ch2mhill.com/power
Conoco Phillips Cover 2 1
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energy services 25 17
www.energy-usa.com
General electric 7 6
www.ge-energy.com/powerwave
General Physics 21 15
www.etaproefficiency.com
itM Associates 32
www.itmpwr.com
Jeffrey rader 14 11
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Kingsbury inc 58 28
www.kingsbury.com/p88
Magnetrol 11 8
www.magnetrol.com
Membrana 57 22
www.liqui-cel.com/industries/power-boiler-feed-water.cfm
Mitsubishi 47 25
www.mpshq.com
Orion instruments 43 23
www.orioninstruments.com
Petro-valve 1, 12 3, 9
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PsM 31 18
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rentech Boiler systems 3 4
www.rentechboilers.com
rolls-royce 5 5
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solvay 9 7
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stF sPA 17 13
www.stf.it, www.bwe.dk
tedA 23 16
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turbine energy solutions 39 21
sales@turbineenergysolutions.com
turbocare 53 26
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Wrtsil 41 29
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Westinghouse electric 35 20
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CLAssiFied AdvertisinG
Pages 71-74, To place a classified ad, contact:
Diane Hammes, POWER magazine, 713-343-1885,
dianeh@powermag.com
September 2009
|
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|
September 2009 76
COMMENTARY
To Modernize the Grid,
Think Smaller
By Kurt Yeager
R
ight now, Americas energy, economic, and environmental
futures are at a crossroads. Its clear that President Ba-
rack Obama understands the urgent need to modernize the
nations obsolete power grid. He sees the connection between
infrastructure investment and the opportunity to create new,
tech-savvy jobs that can stimulate the economy. By including
funding for grid modernization in the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009, his administration is prioritizing an
initiative that is critical to the nations globally competitive
business success, yet one that has been largely overlooked at
the federal level for decades.
Unfortunately, the consumer, societal, and business benefits
are less clear, because the vast majority of grid-related stimulus
funding appears destined to primarily expand, not cure, the ail-
ing system we have today.
Moving Beyond Centralized Power Systems
Investing mostly in high-voltage transmission projects, for ex-
ample, moves us away from economic recovery and toward a
more centralized power system, while stifling entrepreneurship
and innovation. Building a national backbone grid without cre-
ating incentives for utilities and technology companies to up-
date local power systems will lead to massive gridlock. Smart
energy will be dumped into dumb systems, reducing efficiency
and wasting taxpayer dollars.
This kind of conventional wisdom got us where we are today
to a position where we are hobbled by an antiquated power sys-
tem and policies that block improvements and undermine energy
security and sustainability. There is indeed no industry or infra-
structure that is more a prisoner of the past or more afraid of the
future than the U.S. electricity supply sector.
Instead of focusing on new transmission lines that are po-
litically expedient from a federal perspective, real economic
opportunities in grid modernization can be most quickly and
cost-effectively achieved through the installation of innova-
tive smart grid technology that fundamentally improves local
electricity distribution and service. Moving forward, the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) should focus on the ways that
smart technology can most quickly and sustainably create jobs,
reduce our dependence on foreign oil, improve efficiency, and
reduce carbon emissions. Smart grid stimulus projects should
only be funded if they can demonstrably meet these objectives
and the project sponsors, both public and private, are accord-
ingly held accountable. What the DOE will discover is that the
most powerful stimulus application of smart grid technology
can be made at the community electricity distribution level.
Smart Microgrids: 21st-Century Solution
Federal and state investments should be focused on creating
opportunities to optimize electricity supply and demand, not
on simply creating more bulk electricity supply. The most ef-
fective approach is the development of smart microgrids that
focus smart technology on maximizing consumer benefits and
eliminating the technology and policy iron curtain that now
prevents electricity supply and demand optimization.
Smart microgrids work in concert with and strengthen the bulk
power grid; however, they also can rely on their own distributed
power sources when needed or desired. In this manner, they
can be designed to optimally serve entire communities, office
parks, universities, and even individual buildings. Aside from the
jobs that microgrids can create, countless companies are stand-
ing ready to produce and install available technology that gives
residents and retail businesses real user-friendly control over en-
ergy use, plus the opportunity to sell electricity back to the grid
based on price incentives. In the end, all citizenshomeowners,
small business owners, mayors, and community leaderswin
when they are supplied with absolutely reliable, efficient, af-
fordable electricity that they are able to control.
So rather than caving in to the status quo, policymakers need
to change the counterproductive rules restricting retail service
competition at the state level so that entrepreneurs, private in-
vestors, and consumers can all contribute to grid modernization in
the most meaningful, constructive ways. In the spirit of economic
revitalization, the administration and Congress must set federal
mandates for utilities and state regulatory agencies to clear these
barriers standing in the way of creating local power systems that
are smarter, cleaner, and produce more jobs. Removing these cur-
rently restrictive regulations that stunt the growth of local green
economies will grant entrepreneurial innovators the opportunity to
step in and implement energy technology locally that can produce
major long-term sustainable savings for consumers, communities,
and utilities alike. Simply put, if this action isnt taken, federal
funding will end up being taxpayer money down the drain.
We need to revolutionize the nations power system today,
and smart distribution microgrids are essential building blocks
of the 21st-century solution. We need federal pressure on states
not only to fund energy infrastructure improvements but also to
implement sustainable energy plans and policies that can ben-
efit consumers and communities now, while paying ever-growing
dividends far into the future.
Kurt Yeager (kyeager@epri.com) is the executive director of
the Galvin Electricity Initiative and coauthor of Perfect Power:
How the Microgrid Revolution Will Unleash Cleaner, Greener, and
More Abundant Energy.
Smart microgrids work
in concert with and strengthen
the bulk power grid.
C T L
MENLO PARK HOUSTON BEIJING TOKYO ZURICH
www.sriconsulting.com/SR
Smart Research. Smart Business.
COAL TO LIQUIDS
As oil supplies diminish, energy strategies that can bolster liquid fuels are especially critical for
countries with limited oil reserves. SRI Consulting's report is a unique resource, with
comprehensive and balanced coverage of the technical, political and environmental issues
surrounding the use of CTL-based processes. The over four hundred page report is divided
into eight sections and has four informational appendices:
Introduction and Background of Coal
Report Summary
Coal to Liquid Strategies
Industry Status
Technology Review
Integrated Gasification and Fischer-Tropsch Economics
Parameters and Features of CTL Catalysts
Overviews of Recent Work on Catalysts for CTL
Technology Intelligence for Coal to Liquids Strategies
UELS
UTURE
of the
F
Contact Russell Heinen at +1 281 203 6285 for more information.
rheinen@sriconsulting.com
We have system solutions for wet and dry
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For more certainty. For more reliability. For more
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upgrades, services and replacement parts?
2009 The Babcock & Wilcox Company. All rights reserved.
Environmental Upgrades, Services and Parts

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