GE to Upgrade California’s Mountainview Generating Facility, Highlighting Utility Sector’s Efforts to Balance Renewables with Natural Gas
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New DLN2.6+ Combustion System Helps Lower Site’s Emissions without
Using Additional Water
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Advanced Gas Path Solution to Boost Turbine Performance While
Reducing Startup Times and Fuel and Water Consumption
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Project is Part of North American Utility Sector Trend to Boost
Efficiency, Output of Existing Natural Gas Power Plants
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By Combining GE Hardware and Software, U.S. and Canadian Operators
Achieving Greater Output and Longer Periods between Maintenance Cycles
GE’s Power Generation Services business (NYSE:GE) today announced it has
signed a multiyear services agreement with Southern
California Edison (SCE) to upgrade the utility’s Mountainview
Generating Facility, a 1,054-megawatt (MW) combined-cycle power plant in
Redlands, California. Highlighting a growing trend with North American
combined-cycle power stations, the upgrade project will reduce the
facility’s startup times, lower its emissions without using additional
water and help to balance the growing role of renewables on the grid.
“Our Mountainview station will be much more flexible, enabling it to
more quickly respond to the needs of the California ISO system that is
highly penetrated with solar power and other renewable sources,” said
Stuart R. Hemphill, senior vice president, Power Supply & Operational
Services, Southern California Edison. “GE’s solution also gives us a
more efficient plant, creating greater value and savings for our
customers.”
GE’s technologies will boost the station’s output by about 48 MW,
increase its efficiency and offer longer intervals between maintenance
outages. By boosting Mountainview’s flexibility, the project will help
SCE protect the grid from the intermittency of the state’s rapidly
expanding renewable energy supplies while strengthening the facility’s
competitive position in California.
Renewable energy has grown so rapidly1 that it accounted for
most new U.S. electricity production added in 2014. California’s share
of electricity from renewables has more than doubled to 25 percent
today, up from 12 percent in 2008. California also has signed contracts
with its leading utilities to ensure that more than 33 percent of the
state’s power comes from renewables by 2020. Gov. Jerry Brown also set a
new state target of 50 percent renewables by 2030.
“We are excited to support SCE’s upgrades to the Mountainview Generating
Facility,” said Paul McElhinney, president and CEO of GE’s Power
Generation Services business. “This agreement underscores their
confidence in our generation and combustion technologies and
capabilities to execute an extremely complex project while increasing
plant availability. With natural gas playing a growing role in power
generation around the world, we are committed to helping operators
squeeze every megawatt they can out of their existing facilities while
also reducing their site emissions and water consumption.”
SCE’s Mountainview Generating Facility features four 7FA.03 units, two
D-11 steam turbines and associated generators in combined cycle. As part
of the new extended service agreement with SCE to upgrade the site’s
generating equipment, GE will supply six Advanced
Gas Path (AGP) sets; six sets of its Dry Low NOx 2.6+
(DLN2.6+) combustion system as well as its OpFlex* software package; and
four new unit rotors. GE also is providing extended steam turbine
coverage as well as premium generator coverage.
The Mountainview upgrade project reflects a broader commitment
by SCE and other California utilities to curtail their water
consumption to help the state battle chronic drought conditions. The
DLN2.6+ combustion system will enable SCE to further reduce the
Mountainview plant’s emissions without the need for using additional
water in the process. Moreover, using GE’s technology, SCE can reduce
both water consumption and emissions, helping them comply with
tightening environmental regulations while also reducing their operating
expenses.
GE’s Remote Monitoring & Diagnostics Center in Atlanta, which oversees
the company’s installed base of gas and steam turbines, will play a
crucial role in enhancing the environmental compliance of the
Mountainview Generating Facility’s combustion technology.
GE is scheduled to begin installing its technology solutions at the
Mountainview Generating Facility in 2016 and complete the project by May
2017. GE’s equipment is expected to be supplied by its gas turbine
facility in Greenville, South Carolina.
Located about 80 miles east of Los Angeles, Mountainview Generating
Facility generates enough power to meet the needs of about 685,000
average U.S. homes.
SCE’s upgrade of the Mountainview Generating Facility is just one of a
growing number of combined-cycle power plants that GE is helping to
upgrade throughout North America as operators seek to strengthen their
financial and competitive positions in a changing energy landscape.
Other projects include:
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In July 2015, Nova Scotia, Canada-based energy company Emera
Energy selected GE to upgrade the Tiverton Power station in Rhode
Island to increase efficiency, capacity and long-term availability of
the power plant and reduce its operating costs and environmental
impacts. The 265-MW natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plant
provides electricity to Rhode Island and the surrounding area through
ISO New England.
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Illustrating that Canadian operators have similar requirements, GE was
selected in March 2015 to help modernize the 874-MW Goreway Power
Station in Brampton, Ontario, to increase its reliability, flexibility
and efficiency. GE will upgrade the facility’s existing 7FB gas
turbine to more efficient 7FB.04 gas turbine specifications. GE’s
solution will include its AGP and DLN2.6+ combustion technologies as
part of a multiyear service agreement that includes premium extended
generator coverage.
The SCE, Emera Energy and Goreway power plant upgrade projects
illustrate the benefits of packaging GE’s service solutions. By
combining GE’s AGP, DLN and OpFlex solutions, operators can increase
their output more than through just installing AGP. Furthermore,
combining AGP and DLN can help operators extend their maintenance cycles
by aligning hot gas path and combustion inspection intervals, while
installing only AGP or DLN does not allow the operator time to reach an
extended outage to do all the work at once and reduce downtime.
To download a photo of Southern California Edison's Mountainview
Generating Facility, click here.
About GE
GE (NYSE:GE) imagines things others don’t, builds things others can’t
and delivers outcomes that make the world work better. GE brings
together the physical and digital worlds in ways no other company can.
In its labs and factories and on the ground with customers, GE is
inventing the next industrial era to move, power, build and cure the
world. www.ge.com
About GE Power & Water
GE Power & Water provides customers with a broad array of power
generation, energy delivery and water process technologies to solve
their challenges locally. Power & Water works in all areas of the energy
industry including renewable resources such as wind and solar; biogas
and alternative fuels; and coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy.
The business also develops advanced technologies to help solve the
world’s most complex challenges related to water availability and
quality. Power & Water’s six business units include Distributed Power,
Nuclear Energy, Power Generation Products, Power Generation Services,
Renewable Energy and Water & Process Technologies. Headquartered in
Schenectady, N.Y., Power & Water is GE’s largest industrial business.
Follow GE Power & Water and GE Power Generation on Twitter @GE_PowerWater
and @ge_powergen,
and on LinkedIn.
* Trademark of General Electric Company; may be registered in one or
more countries.
1 Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2015, “Op-Ed: Renewable Energy
is a California Success Story.”
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