Emerson and Mitsubishi Complete Conversion of Termocandelaria Power Station to Dual Feed

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Emerson Process Management, a unit of Emerson Electric Company (NYSE:EMR) (St. Louis, Missouri), and Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas Incorporated (MPSA), a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Limited (TYO:7011) (Tokyo, Japan), has successfully converted the gas-fuel operated Termocandelaria power plant in Colombia to run on both natural gas and oil.

The conversion to a dual-feed system offers power operators far greater startup reliability and, with the ability to operate from two different fuel feeds, provides a much greater security of fuel supply. The conversion provides a low-risk, cost-effective strategy to the plant operator, Termocandelaria Power Limited, to improve generating revenues through the ability to supply power quickly and on demand.

Electricity in Colombia is mainly supplied by hydroelectric power plants located in the central region of the country. In times of high demand, drought, or transmission failures, these power plants are sometimes unable to meet demand. During these times, the Colombian government needs a reliable and quickly available source of backup power to maintain adequate supplies to consumers.

The Termocandelaria plant, located in Cartagena, was commissioned in 2000 and contains two 501F gas turbines supplied by Westinghouse Electric Company LLC (Monroeville, Pennsylvania), giving the plant a total generating capacity of 314 megawatts. Working together, Emerson and Mitsubishi developed a new control strategy for the dual-feed system, including methods for water injection and gas and oil feed systems.

The existing gas turbine controls were moved from the previous Westinghouse Distributed Processing Facility (WDPF) control system to the Emerson Ovation system. In the process, the controls were converted from the existing setup to an industry standard that will enable the Termocandelaria plant to modify control systems more simply, should future conditions require changes.

The Emerson system was designed to allow an easy migration path for WDPF users, thus avoiding the need for a complete systems replacement. Much of the existing technological infrastructure, such as graphics, field cabling and terminations, was retained in the migration process, thereby retaining a large part of the initial plant investment.

MPSA was responsible for the dual-fuel conversion, which included the installation of gas and oil supply systems and a new combustion system with water-injected diffusion flame combustors to maximize the unit's output and simplify the conversion process. The conversion included the dual feed system developed by MPSA, which uses a duplex fuel nozzle that eliminates the need for a flow divider, and improves low-load emissions and startup capabilities.

The conversion was completed in just 11 months, a challenging timetable that was imposed to prevent Termocandelaria from facing financial penalties that would be imposed if it were unable to fulfill regulatory obligations. Emerson and MPSA entered into an agreement in December 2008 specifically designed to cover turbine retrofit projects in North America and Latin America involving Westinghouse W251, W5015D, W501D5A, and W501F gas turbines and all models of the Westinghouse steam turbines. MPSA has been involved in the design and development of Westinghouse technology since the 1970s and continues to offer support for the same.

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