Operation Expected for Blythe Merchant Power Plant in April

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). The Blythe Merchant Power Plant is in its final stage of testing, with commercial operation scheduled for April. The $250-million power plant is located in Blythe, California, midway between Los Angeles and Phoenix, and is sited on 15 acres of a 76-acre parcel of private land east of the Blythe Airport.

The 514-megawatt (MW) combined-cycle plant includes a 180-megawatt Westinghouse steam turbine generator, two 167-megawatt Westinghouse condensing combustion turbine generators, joined with two Vogt heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs).

The facility is intended as a "merchant plant", which means the power generated would serve to the open market rather than any particular utility. Because they produce only wholesale power, the supply and state or local authorities do not regulate the price of the electricity. These plants survive by producing competitively priced electricity.

Natural gas will be the primary fuel at the Blythe plant, it will be fed to the facility by new pipelines that would connect to existing major interstate gas pipelines in the region. Other major components include water treatment equipment, and an inlet air cooling system. Exhaust stacks from the HRSGs will use Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) to reduce harmful emissions. SCR requires the injection of ammonia into the stack exhaust stream.

The plant will be using ground water that will be supplied by wells constructed on the plant site. The facility will require about 2,150 gallons per minute when the plant is operational. Sanitary wastewater from sinks, toilets, and other facilities will be disposed by a septic system. The plant will provide intermediate load service, and electricity produced from the merchant power plant will be sold into Western's distribution system.

The plant's owner will be Blythe Energy LLC (Blythe, California), a private energy producer not affiliated with any California regulated utility. FPL Energy LLC, a subsidiary of FPL Group Incorporated (NYSE: FPL) (Juno Beach, Florida), is a leader in producing electricity from clean and renewable fuels, is responsible for constructing and operating the plant.