Commercial Operation is Delayed at Carville Energy Center

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Calpine Corporation had scheduled to begin commercial operation at the Carville Energy Center by January 19th, 2003, but due to a fault found in the steam generator recently, the start-up date has been pushed out until March 2003. The plant is located in Saint Gabriel, Louisiana, includes of two 150-megawatt (MW) General Electric combustion turbines, paired with heat-recovery steam generators (HRSGs), and a 156-megawatt Alstom steam turbine, the primary fuel is natural gas.

For more information on Calpine, including a 12-Month Financial Analysis, see Calpine Added 6,000 MW Despite Soft Energy Market in 2002

The plant is a cogeneration facility, meaning the simultaneous production and utilization of combined heat and power (CHP), typically in the form of electricity and either steam or hot water. Because the heat generated by the production of electricity is captured and utilized, cogeneration results in a much higher fuel efficiency and lower energy costs. It is an economically productive approach to pollution prevention. Cogeneration provides electricity and heat from a single unit, overall efficiencies of ninety-three percent are normally achieved compared to separate generation. This directly reduces the users fuel costs, and benefit the environment through reduced combustion of fossil fuels. Cogeneration also reduces some of the emissions of atmospheric pollutants associated with the combustion of fossil fuels such as carbon dioxide, a contributor to global warming, and sulfur dioxide, which results in acid rain.

To be viable, cogeneration systems must operate almost continuously for extended periods of time, a typical minimum utilization level is 4,500 hours a year. Servicing and maintenance is frequently contracted to the equipment supplier and condition monitoring is installed to aid maintenance scheduling and fault diagnosis. The concept of cogeneration can be applied to power plant of any size, from micro cogen units to full size grid generating stations.

The potential use of cogeneration is great. As older power plant age and need to be replaced, cogeneration will be an increasing attractive alternative for generating electricity.

Carville Energy Center's ultimate owner is Calpine Corporation (NYSE: CPN) (San Jose, California), a private energy producer (PEP) engaged in the development, acquisition, ownership and operation of power generation facilities. The company is also the world's largest producer of electricity using renewable geothermal energy.