Golden Valley Electric Association Completes $75 Million Expansion Project

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA) (Fairbanks, Alaska) has commenced full commercial operation of the $75 million expansion project at the North Pole Power Station located in North Pole, Alaska. Construction for the project began in August 2004 and was completed and ready for first firing in November 2006. The project was implemented to help meet increasing power requirements for GVEA customers. The expansion added 60 megawatts of generating capacity to the existing 120-megawatt (MW) North Pole Power Plant site that was built in 1975.

The project consisted of installing a 47 MW GE Power Systems LM6000 SPRINT combustion turbine generator, an Innovative Steam Technologies heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) and a 13 MW Turbodyne Corporation steam turbine generator. The steam turbine will utilize the waste heat from the combustion turbines to produce power. The plant is designed to facilitate the addition of a second LM6000 and HRSG in the future. The plant is also designed to operate between-60°F to +90°F. The power plant building is enclosed, allowing inside work to proceed through the harsh interior Alaska winter season.

The combustion turbine will use water injection combustion controls to control nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, low sulfur fuel to control sulfur dioxide emissions and a carbon monoxide (CO) catalyst to control emissions of CO. The plant will burn naphtha, an extremely clean burning fuel, produced at the Flint Hills Refinery next door to the power station. The total combined sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from the two existing 60 MW gas turbines and the new 60 MW plant will be lower than what is currently permitted for the existing power plants by the Department of Environmental Conservation. If natural gas comes to the interior, the power plant will have the ability to burn gas.

NANA/Colt Engineering, LLC, based in Anchorage, Alaska, performed the engineering services for the project. Haskell Corporation, headquartered in Bellingham, Washington, acted as the general contractor for the project.

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