Lights On for Zachry
“They did that for a couple of reasons,” he adds. “One is to minimize our risk. The EPC approach has that advantage.”
West County
Zachry teamed up with Black & Veatch, forming the joint venture West County Power Partners, to build the West County facility on a Palm Beach County greenfield site for FPL. Each block is considered a three-on-one configuration, consisting of three Mitsubishi G-series combustion turbine generators exhausting into three triple-wide Nooter/Eriksen heat recovery steam generators.
“This is the first greenfield power plant project for FPL in more than 30 years and the first use of the G combustion turbine technology,” Villafana says.
FPL is purchasing the combustion and steam turbines, the heat-recovery steam generators and the main stepup transformer, Myers says. Zachry is providing the balance of the plant, the cooling towers, tanks, water feed pumps and motors.
Each Mitsubishi’s G technology combustion turbine is rated at 1,250MW. Altogether, the plant will be able to generate approximately 3,500MW.
Blocks 1 and 2 are in the commissioning and startup phase. The team has a finish date of late summer on Block 1 and February on Block 2, although Villafana expects both will be operational by yearend. Phase three began construction in March and has a June 2011 completion date.
Crystal River
In a job for Progress Energy, Environmental Partners Crystal River, a partnership between Zachry and Burns & McDonnell, is completing an emission-control project on the company’s Crystal River Units 4 and 5.
“It’s back-end environmental cleanup,” Myers says. “It’s about carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide emission reductions.”
The project features installing selective catalytic reduction systems and wet lime flue-gas desulferization for two 1980s-era, 750-megawatt pulverized coal units.
Zachry began the work in February 2007 and has a completion date of next May.
“These are complex, lengthy outages, requiring round-the-clock work,” Myers says.
Cane Island
The FMPA, a wholesale power agency owned by municipal electric utilities, is adding a high-efficiency, natural gas-fired generating unit that will produce 300MW, enough to serve approximately 60,000 homes. In addition to adding capacity, the new unit will modernize the agency’s equipment and increase efficiency.
“This will be one of the cleanest plants and one of the highest-efficiency plants in Florida,” McCain says. The facility will use treated waste water for cooling purposes, which will conserve ground water resources.
The EPC agreement with Zachry includes provisions for constructability improvements. Both parties can share in savings to the cost of construction. It is structured so the entity that comes up with an idea, which will reduce cost by at least $10,000, receives 60% of the savings and the other party will receive 40%. By early July, ideas brought forward have shaved $300,000 off the cost of the project.
Construction began in March and is expected to finish in 2011.
Greenland
JEA needed additional generation capacity to meet increased demand, and it strategically selected a parcel east of the St. Johns River, closer to its fastest load growth. The bulk of the permitting has been secured.
The power company expects to begin sitework in September on the greenfield parcel. JEA created four packages so local contractors could participate in the project, Cheatham says.
The Greenland facility is scheduled for commercial operation in June 2011.
Useful sources:
• West County Energy Center
http://www.fpl.com/environment/plant/west_county.shtml
• Greenland Energy Center
http://www.jea.com/about/pub/downloads/GEC-Factsheet.pdf
• Cane Island Power Park Expansion
www.fmpa.com/index.php/power-generation/power-facilities/cane-island-power-park