| Turbine developments
SRP’s reduced Coolidge Expansion Project approved
The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) has approved an amended Certificate of Environmental Compatibility (CEC) for the Coolidge Expansion Project, a flexible, fast- ramping natural gas plant that will help SRP “cost- effectively and reliably meet the region’s growing energy needs as the utility works to add more solar, wind and storage resources.” The amended CEC was made possible, in part, due to the recent settlement between SRP (Salt River Project) and the “Randolph parties.” In that settlement, SRP agreed to additional mitigation efforts and to provide additional financial support to assist the Randolph community. “We are grateful to the Randolph community for the opportunity to listen to and address their concerns regarding the Coolidge Expansion Project,” said Bobby Olsen, SRP associate general manager and chief planning, strategy and sustainability executive.
As part of the “mitigation and support measures” to be undertaken by SRP, it will reduce the number of open cycle gas turbine powered generating units included in the expansion project from 16 to 12, slightly move the location of the new units to make them less visible to the community and agree to limit the operational use of the new Coolidge generating station units to a capacity factor of 30%. The installed capacity of the new plant will be reduced from 820 MWe to 575 MWe (which is the same as the existing 12-gas-turbine facility).
“SRP must continue to provide reliable power to its customers now and in the future as we respond to dramatic load growth in the state of Arizona. Flexible, fast ramping generation is critical to meet this obligation,” Olsen said. “The Coolidge Expansion Project both supports that reliability mission and will enable additional solar, wind and other renewables to be part of our system.” SRP says its customers are already benefitting from new solar and battery resources that have recently come online — part of a commitment to add 2025 MW of solar and wind generation
The existing Coolidge power plant, total installed capacity 575 MWe, employs twelve GE LM6000 open cycle gas turbines
and 1100 MW of batteries by 2025 — while “paying some of the lowest energy costs in the West.” With these and other strategic resource additions, “more than 75% of energy delivered to SRP customers will come from carbon-free resources by 2035,” the utility says. SRP summarises the benefits of the Coolidge Expansion Project as follows: Meeting near-term demand: One of SRP’s primary responsibilities to the communities it serves is to provide reliable electric service. The CEP will allow SRP to fulfill this obligation in the face of strong economic growth in SRP’s service territory.
Reliable integration of renewables: The CEP includes quick-starting (10 minutes) and fast- ramping power generation resources that can smooth out fluctuations in power supply from renewables and ensure SRP delivers consistent, reliable power. Importance of location: The CEP location allows SRP to leverage the existing Coolidge generating station site and infrastructure while also ensuring a better balance of power generation located in the East Valley with power generation located in the West Valley. This will “help to optimise the overall power
transfer capability, reliability and flexibility of SRP’s transmission system.” Lowest-cost option: SRP say it has recently conducted multiple RFP (request for proposal) processes, which have confirmed that the CEP provides its customers with the lowest-cost option to address growing energy needs of its service territory while ensuring it continues to meet our board-approved sustainability goals. SRP says the CEP is critical to SRP’s published goal of achieving 65% carbon intensity reduction by 2035 and 90% by 2050 because it will enable the addition of more renewable resources while maintaining the reliability of SRP’s power system.
Salt River Project is a community-based public utility delivering water and power to the Phoenix metropolitan area. It acquired the Coolidge power station from TransCanada in 2019. The existing Coolidge gas-fired power plant, built by TransCanada between 2009 and 2011, is located on a 100 acre site near the intersection of Randolph Road and South Arizona Boulevard in Coolidge, Pinal County, Arizona, 90 km south east of Phoenix.
The new plant will be built on an adjoining 100 acre site south of the existing facility.
Hydrogen-capable GT36 for Germany
As part of its plans to install hydrogen-ready gas fired power plants at its power plant sites in Germany, in support of the goal of phasing out coal by 2030, RWE has awarded a contract to a consortium of Ansaldo Energia (Italy) and Técnicas Reunidas (Spain) to carry out preliminary work on a hydrogen-capable 800 MW GT36 based combined cycle power plant. This would be constructed at Weisweiler, currently the location of four lignite fired units, but which could find itself close to a hydrogen pipeline according to current H2
infrastructure plans.
This contract, the first of three “contract tranches”, is for what is described as “approval
planning”, a first step for the power plant, which is the prerequisite for RWE “to quickly start implementation as soon as the framework conditions are right.”
The two other contract tranches, covering main power plant components and construction, will require a positive FID, possibly in 2025, once all the necessary permits have been obtained and there is clarity about the overall economic viability of the project.
“Only when the hydrogen grid connections are secured and the economic operation of the power plants is made possible by suitable framework conditions, can we make final
investment decisions,” said Roger Miesen, CEO RWE Generation SE.
The planned plant needs to be capable of running on at least 50%vol hydrogen at the time of start up. Ansaldo Energia says its GT36 gas turbine already meets this requirement thanks to sequential combustion (a feature of the GT26 and GT36 gas turbine technology acquired by Ansaldo from Alstom), with the potential to upgrade to 100% hydrogen. RWE wants conversion to 100% hydrogen to be possible from 2035 onwards. RWE is also examining the construction of hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plants at other sites.
www.modernpowersystems.com | July/August 2023 | 33
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