TEP to Install 10 Reciprocating Engines at Sundt Station

Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Tucson Electric Power (TEP) (Tucson, Arizona), a unit of Fortis Incorporated (TSX:FTS) (St. John's, Newfoundland), received authorization this summer from an environmental panel to install 10 gas-fired reciprocating engines totaling about 190 megawatts (MW) at its H. Wilson Sundt Generating Station in Tucson, Arizona. The project, which consists of two 93.7-MW phases, will begin construction later this year. The first phase is scheduled to be operating by early 2020. Construction of the second phase is expected to begin in mid-2019 and be complete two months later. The overall cost for the two-phase project is about $200 million.

Built in the 1950s, the Sundt power station had alternated between burning coal and gas for most of its life. The station burned its last load of coal two years ago and has been exclusively gas-fired since then. The new engines are more efficient than the plant's existing steam generators, which were nearing the end of their useful lives. The new generators also can fire up more quickly than the current generators, which helps the utility more effectively meet peak demand and back up intermittent generation like wind and solar. The new engines also will have selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems to lower emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx), which contribute to ground-level ozone. The permit for the new engines also has a lower cap on NOx emissions.

At the Sundt station, TEP plans to install 10 Wartsila 18V50SG internal combustion engines, which have generating capacity of about 19 MW. Sargent & Lundy (Chicago, Illinois) is providing design engineering services to the project, and the general contractor is the Ashton Company Incorporated (Phoenix, Arizona). Ashton is expected to release a request for proposal (RFP) for equipment, consumables and specialty subcontractors later this year.

Upgrading the Sundt station is part of the utility's capital plan to make its generation fleet more efficient, add renewable generation and battery energy storage and construct new transmission and distribution (T&D) assets.

In a statement, the utility said it has invested approximately $1 billion over the last five years to upgrade infrastructure and make other improvements to its network. TEP said it plans to invest about $260 million this year in electric T&D facilities and other resources.

The utility, which serves about 424,000 customers in southern Arizona, also has plans to significantly increase its use of renewable generation.

TEP said more than 380 MW of wind, solar and battery storage projects are scheduled to come online over the next few years. Last year, renewable energy accounted for about 13% of all electricity generated by TEP, roughly double what it was required to generate under an Arizona law.

The utility plans to bring at least 150 MW of new wind resources online by the end of 2020. TEP also plans to buy energy from a 100-MW solar project and a 30-MW energy storage system that will be constructed by NextEra Energy Resources (Juno Beach, Florida), a unit of NextEra Energy Incorporated (NYSE:NEE) (Juno Beach).

Over a longer-term horizon, TEP expects to sharply increase its use of renewables as it lessens its reliance on coal to generate electricity. By the end of 2030, TEP anticipates adding 800 MW of renewables, which would bring its total renewable generation fleet to roughly 1,200 MW.

In its T&D business, TEP is investigating a $81 million umbrella project to upgrade its Rio Rico substation, a $36 million umbrella project called the Nogales-Kantor upgrade and a $17.6 million relocation of the Irvington Road Substation, among other projects.

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