EL SEGUNDO, CA – On September 12th, Siemens Energy and NRG Energy celebrated the official grand opening and repowering of the El Segundo Energy Center, the second Siemens “Flex- Plant” in the nation with a ribbon cutting ceremony and luncheon. Southern California Edison has a 10 year power purchase agreement. The first Siemens “Flex-Plant” is operating at the Lodi Energy Center also in California (See world-gen.com, Featured Articles, Aug/Sept 2012). Before the ceremony, NRG executives George Piantka and Tim Sisk hosted a press tour for World- Gen editors around the ten acre plant footprint, and shared its history. Along the tour, they pointed out the new 11 foot high undulating sea wall NRG constructed, fronted by a bike path, ocean walkway and native landscaping NRG planted. The plant created 400 jobs and will increase tax revenue by $3 million annually. No tax dollars were used on the project.NRG was originally issued a license in
2005 for a 630 MW, ocean-cooled baseload
plant, but elected to redesign to an aircooled,
rapid-response, 550 MW plant.
CEC granted approval in July, 2010.
Construction began in May, 2011. The
new design included two 280-MW
Siemens SCC6-5000F Flex Plant 10 combined
cycle power islands. Air-cooled
condensers replaced the once-through
cooling system. Fortuitously, NRG moved
ahead of the 2010 state regulation that
requires all once-through cooling systems
be removed or replaced by 2020.
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NRG, SIEMENS REPOWER John Chillemi, Sr VP, CEO
David Crane of NRG, and
Barry Nicholls, Sr VP at
Siemens are joined by other
dignitaries representing state
and regional energy agencies
that permitted the El
Segundo project at the ribbon
cutting ceremony.
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For El Segundo, Siemens delivered two power islands with each featuring the main components: an SGT6-5000F gas turbine; an SST-800 steam turbine; an SGen6-100A generator; an SGen6-100A- 2P generator as well as a heat recovery steam generator, and an air-cooled heat exchanger. Siemens also supplied the complete electrical equipment and the SPPA-T3000 power plant instrumentation and control system. The company also provided the engineering services and commissioning of the plant. EL SEGUNDO REPOWERING Plant start-up times are significantly
reduced by introducing and integrating
fast-start features, including the single-
pressure HP drum heat recovery
steam generator (HRSGs), full capacity
steam bypass systems, and innovative
piping warm-up strategies. The plants
will provide high power density while
requiring a relatively small plant footprint.
The unique small footprint aircooled
heat exchanger allows these
plants to use 90% less water than traditional
ramping solutions, and meets the
standards of the once-through cooling
initiative in California. The Siemens
SPPA-T3000 control system provides an
easy-to-use control platform for the
entire combined cycle power plant. Its
fast start capability delivers over half of
the plant’s power in 10 minutes and the
balance of power in under an hour. This
can result in a carbon monoxide reduction
of over 200 tons per year when compared
to traditional F-class combined
cycle plants.
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