Progress Energy Moving Forward with Plans to Repower Bartow Station

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Progress Energy Florida, Incorporated (Saint Petersburg, Florida), a subsidiary of Progress Energy, Incorporated (NYSE:PGN) (Raleigh, North Carolina), is moving forward with plans to repower the existing Paul L Bartow Power Station in Saint Petersburg. Bibb & Associates (Lenexa, Kansas), a subsidiary of Kiewit Corporation (Omaha, Nebraska), will provide design and engineering services while TIC (Steamboat Springs, Colorado) will be the general contractor.

The repowering project will consist of replacing the three existing boilers and steam turbine generators with a 4-on-1 combined cycle power block and a single peaking unit. In the combined cycle section of the plant, four Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation (SWPC) 501F duel-fueled (Oil and Natural Gas) combustion turbine generators will be added. Each of the combustion turbines will be attached to heat recovery steam generators (HRSG), which exhaust steam to a single 420-megawatt (MW) steam turbine generator. The project will also add a single SWPC 501F simple cycle combustion capable of generating 190 MW (175 MW nominal) of peaking power to the grid.

The combined cycle power block will be equipped with duct-burners and evaporative cooling for increased power output. In addition, the power block is being designed with by pass stacks to allow the units to operate in simple cycle mode if a steam turbine or condenser problem were to occur that would prevent operation of the plant in a combined cycle mode. This design is expected to allow a steam turbine trip without the loss of the gas turbines. Repowering of the plant is expected to provide significant emission reductions for pollutants such as NOx, SO2 and particulates. Each of the combustion turbines and HRSG’s will be equipped with dry low NOx combustors and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) units to reduce NOx emissions.

Paul L Bartow as it exists today is home to three boilers capable of being fueled by No. 6 fuel oil, used oil, natural gas and propane. The first of the three units commenced commercial operation in 1958 and has a Babcock & Wilcox front-fired boiler (900,000 lbs/hr @ 1,850 psi) and a 120 MW General Electric steam turbine generator. Commercial operation for the 120 MW Unit 2 commenced in 1961. This unit utilizes an ALSTOM tangential-fired boiler (919,000 lbs/hr @ 1,850 psi) and a GE steam turbine generator. The third and final steam unit is the 225 MW Unit 3, which also utilizes an ALSTOM tangential-fired boiler (1.4MM lbs/hr @ 2,050 psi) and a GE steam turbine generator. This unit began commercial service in 1963. The plant also has four 55 MW simple cycle combustion turbines that will remain after the repower.

Construction for the new power block is expected to begin by early 2007. The project is expected to be complete to a point of simple cycle operation by the end of 2008, with full combined cycle operation anticipated to commence by mid-2009.

For more information on future business trends and project spending in the Power Industry, check out Industrial Info's 2006 Power Industry Forecast.

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