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JUNE 2012

ModernPowerSystems
COMMUNICATING POWER TECHNOLOGY WORLDWIDE

Lessons from the Yajva new build project

INTEGRATED GASIFICATION COMBINED CYCLE

World first at Kemper County

CCGT DEVELOPMENTS
HRSG insulation improvement New dash for gas in the UK Middle East mega-projects

RUSSIAN FOCUS
The challenges of construction in Russia, and how to deal with them Kirishi 6 repowering the first of a kind

BIOMASS
Integrated pyrolysis: how to turn your fluidised bed boiler into a biorefinery

WIND POWER
Market outlook: brief lull followed by rapid recovery Siemens 6 MW machine on trial European debut for worlds most efficient wind turbine

ENERGY STORAGE
Is it ready for take off? New report says yes Adele update Hydro pumped storage: the benefits of varying your speed

SMART GRID

IGCC + CCS: taking shape in Mississippi

The seven deadly sins

DISTRIBUTED GENERATION
Recent recip projects

NEWS HEADLINES

Saudi Arabia should aim at 41 GW solar power by 2032

SAUDI ARABIA SOLAR POWER
Saudi Arabia should install more solar power over the next 20 years than any country has managed so far, while simultaneously building around 21 GW of nuclear reactors. This is the opinion of the body responsible for planning the Saudi energy mix and presented in its 8 May report to the Saudi government. That body is the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE), set up to advise on the energy mix. It has concluded that the kingdom should aim to build up to 41 GW of solar capacity (around 16 GW in photovoltaics and about 25 GW of concentrating solar power), enough to meet a third of expected peak power demand in 2032. KACARE says the kingdom should aim to build this new capacity by that date. A sixth of new installed capacity should come from nuclear and about half from oil and gas. The world's largest oil producer has created only a small amount of solar power capacity to date, less than 50 MW, although its ambition to become a major solar power producer was set out some years ago. But the target of 41 GW, if met, would propel it towards the top of the solar power table. World solar leader Germany installed more than 7000 MW in both 2010 and 2011, raising its total at the end of last year to 25 000 MW. Solar power could in combination with Saudi oil and gas fired power plants help meet peak demand for power in a country where electricity demand surges in summer. Under most of the scenarios modelled by KACARE, nuclear energy emerged as one of the best ways for generating baseload electricity, and the 21 GW target implies that more reactors would be built during the next 20 years than those currently planned by any country other than China, India, Russia or the USA, according to World Nuclear Association data.

Mongstad CCS testing gets under way

NORWAY CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE
Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg has officially opened the worlds largest and most advanced centre for the testing and development of carbon capture technologies. The NOK5.8 million government funded centre at Mongstad is able simultaneously to test two post-combustion carbon capture technologies and has invited vendors in the field to participate in the programme. The opening ceremony marks the end of the construction phase of Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) and the start of the first phase of testing. The knowledge we gain here at Mongstad will help prepare the ground for future CO2 capture initiatives, and thereby combat climate change, said Jens Stoltenberg. Aker Clean Carbon and Alstom will test their respective carbon capture technologies in the first phase of operations at TCM, which recently invited more vendors to compete for a role in the second phase. The technologies will capture carbon from the flue gas streams of an adjacent gas-fired combined heat and power plant and a refinery catalytic cracker. TCM, a joint venture of Shell, Statoil, Sasol and Norwegian government-owned Gassnova, says that the response from vendors has been overwhelming. It intends to become a global resource centre for carbon capture technologies and will share the knowledge gained from testing with vendors and the global research community.

Oil price still a serious obstacle to recovery

FINANCE GLOBAL
Oil prices remain a threat to the fragile global economic recovery despite a recent fall, the International Energy Agency's chief economist told news agency Reuters in an interview last week, adding that the IEA remained ready to release emergency oil stocks if needed. North Sea Brent crude oil reached a peak of more than $128 in March before declining around $15 gradually over the last two months as tensions in the Middle East have eased and oil supplies have increased. Even current prices are far too high for the current economic context ... and pose a serious risk, the IEA's chief economist Fatih Birol told the 2012 Reuters Global Energy & Environment Summit. Economic recovery was especially at stake in Europe, the U.S., Japan and China he added. I'm concerned for Europe and I'm also very concerned that these high prices would hit the still hesitant and slow US economic recovery. The G8 summit that started on 18 May at Camp David, the US president's retreat and international venue, was be overshadowed by the Euro zone crisis but at the request of UK prime minister David Cameron Barack Obama and other world leaders arranged to hold talks about tapping into emergency oil reserves. The position has changed somewhat since early May when the European Commission was in close contact with the United States and the International Energy Agency (IEA) but saw no urgent need for the immediate release of oil stocks, according to the EU's Energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger. But he added We have a pragmatic approach if there is any need to organise volumes coming out from our stocks, we can activate (them) in a few days. We are thinking about this. Oil markets have been on alert for a possible release from strategic reserves after news in March that the US government had held talks with the British and French governments over the issue. In an election year, the US administration is anxious to bring down gasoline prices as the summer driving season looms.
June 2012 Modern Power Systems

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NEWS HEADLINES

GE forms T&D partnership with XD Electric

USA, CHINA MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
In a move intended to create a new global player in the $100 billion and growing transmission and distribution industry, GE and and XD Electric Group have formed a new partnership to deliver a full line of electric transmission and distribution and grid automation products to the world market. The three major components of the partnership are creation of a global partnership to combine GEs grid automation and service capabilities with XD Electrics portfolio of primary power equipment to offer a range of integrated transmission and distribution solutions, establishment of a joint venture with XD Electric to offer customers in China localised grid automation solutions, and GEs purchase of a 15 % equity stake in XD Electric. The latter carries with it the appointment of a representative to the XD board of directors. In the T&D segment, GE is a provider of grid automation systems but also brings to the partnership its global reach and various related areas of expertise in utility and energy-intensive industries such as oil and gas, metals and mining. XD Electric, which is traded on the Shanghai stock exchange, specialises in the research, application, development and manufacture of high and ultrahigh voltage T&D equipment. It is one of Chinas largest primary equipment providers and has a broad range of products to control the flow of power. Gobally, T&D is an industry with strong growth prospects tied to the rise in electricity demand as the proportion of middle-income populations grow around the world. China represents approximately a quarter of the T&D industrys projected expansion and is a leader in the deployment of high and ultra-high voltage technology. Over the next decade, China plans to invest $600 billion in its electricity supply infrastructure. The formation of the partnership remains subject to regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. GE and XD Electric expect that the partnership will be able to begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Alstom wins large California contracts

Strong interest in UK CCS competition

UK CARBON CAPTURE
Some 16 companies from around the world have signalled their intention to participate in the UK governments latest carbon capture and storage (CCS) competition. Doosan, Alstom, Air Liquide, SSE and Shell are some of the companies that have expressed an interest in submitting bids for the competition, which is aimed at helping the UK develop a commercial-scale CCS project. Although the deadline for submitting bids is not until early July, the UK government has published a list of companies that have registered an interest in order to encourage discussion between companies in the CCS field and potential suppliers. Other companies on the list include Centrica, 2Co and Summit Power. This high level of interest proves that the UK is back on track with CCS, said a spokesman representing the Department of Energy and Climate Change. From the outset, we are working through collaboration with industry to ensure we make CCS a reality and importantly create the maximum return for what is one of the best offers available anywhere in the world. The winner of the competition will be offered up to 1 billion in capital funding to support the development of a commercialscale CCS project. The UKs first CCS competition failed to award any funding after bidders gradually dropped out and the government failed to agree terms with the one remaining bidder, a consortium of Shell, Scottish Power and National Grid. In order to qualify for the competition, projects must demonstrate the full CCS chain, or demonstrate the prospect of being part of a full chain in the future, and abate carbon dioxide at a commercial scale. Projects must be operational between 2016 and 2020.

The $30 m contract to refurbish and rehabilitate unit 7 of the Castaic hydropower plant in California has been awarded to Alstom by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Under the terms of the contract, Alstom will design, install and commission an Alstompatented Hooped Pelton runner (an impulse turbine with buckets supported by two separate hoops, top picture) a new generator and new governor, as well as providing an exciter and controls. And in March, the Bureau of Reclamation awarded Alstom a contract worth over USD$10 million to replace and overhaul units 1 and 2 at the 140 MW Trinity Power plant in Northern California. The contract provides for the design, fabrication and testing of a model turbine and of two identical 70 MW vertical Francis runners (lower picture).

Modern Power Systems June 2012

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INTEGRATED GASIFICATION COMBINED CYCLE

Kemper County: constructing the world's first IGCC with CCS

The Kemper County IGCC plant is one of only two large scale power generating facilities with CCS to have entered the construction phase (the other being Boundary Dam 3, profiled in last month's issue). On 15 March, in response to a challenge by the Sierra Club, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that the Mississippi Public Service Commission's original decision in favour of the project (in June 2010) had not given sufficiently detailed evidence. In response, on 24 April 2012, the PSC issued a more detailed order authorising Mississippi Power to continue the project. The project still faces legal challenges, however. The Sierra Club has contested the 24 April PSC order. In the following article, Prasad Koneru and Ahsan Siddiqui of KBR, Houston, TX, USA, and Randall Rush of Southern Company, Birmingham, AL, USA, provide an outline of the main design features of the plant.
he Kemper County plant is a lignite-fuelled 2-on-1 IGCC (integrated gasification combined cycle) facility which uses the airblown TRansport Integrated Gasification (TRIG) technology jointly developed by Southern Company, KBR, and the US DoE at the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) in Wilsonville, AL. The facility is being built by Mississippi Power Company, a Southern Company subsidiary, for baseload generation. The plant location, Kemper County, is about 20 miles north of Meridian, in Mississippi. The greenfield site, of about 3000 acres, is adjacent to a lignite reserve developed and mined by Liberty Fuels, a subsidiary of North American Coal Corporation, and this will be the feedstock for the IGCC plant. The facility will have a syngas-only net output capability of 524 MW, with a peak net output capability of 582 MW when using syngas in the Siemens SGT6-5000F combustion turbines coupled with natural gas firing in the heat recovery steam generators, which supply steam to a Toshiba steam turbine (of the tandem compound double flow type). The facility will produce marketable byproducts: ammonia; sulphuric acid; and carbon dioxide, for enhanced oil recovery.
Photograph of the Kemper County site as of April 2012, construction well underway

Some 65% of the carbon dioxide will be captured, making the Kemper County facility's carbon emissions (about 800 1b per MWh) comparable to those of a natural gas fired combined cycle plant. The anticipated commercial operation date of the Kemper County IGCC facility is May 2014. The TRIG technology, derived from fluidised catalytic cracking units used in the petrochemical industry, employs a pressurised, circulating fluidised bed unit. The system features high efficiencies and is capable of processing low rank coals such as lignite, while achieving high environmental standards for SO2, NOX, dust, mercury and CO2. Cost analysis based on extensive design has shown that the economic benefits offered by the airblown Transport Gasifier relative to other systems are preserved even when CO2 capture and sequestration are incorporated into the design. The largest Transport Gasifier built to date started operation in 1996 at the PSDF. The gasifier and auxiliary equipment at the PSDF were sized to provide reliable data for confident scale-up to commercial scale. The demonstration unit has proven easy to operate

What is TRIG?

and control, achieving over 15 600 hours of gasification. It successfully gasified high moisture lignite from the Red Hills mine in Mississippi in four separate test campaigns, totalling over 2300 hours of operation. On lignite, the Transport Gasifier operated smoothly over a range of conditions, confirming the gasifier design for Kemper County. The benefits of TRIG can be summarised as follows: The TRIG gasifier offers a simpler, more robust method for generating energy from coal compared with other available alternatives. It is unique among coal gasification technologies in that it is cost-effective when handling low rank coal, as well as coals with high moisture or high ash content. The TRIG gasifier is an advanced nonslagging pressurised circulating fluidised bed gasifier that operates at moderate temperatures (1500-1950F). The TRIG gasifier has no internals, expansion joints, valves or other moving parts. The TRIG gasifier is designed to operate using air or oxygen, or enriched air/oxygen mixtures as the oxidant depending on the application. The TRIG gasifier can achieve high carbon conversions and mitigate tar and oil formation. The TRIG gasifier has the capability to achieve natural gas equivalency in terms of CO2 emissions, with proper downstream equipment.

Kemper County process outline

The Kemper County IGCC design has two separate gasification trains. Each gasification train supplies syngas to a single Siemens combustion turbine and HRSG. Each gasification train has three parallel coal drying and milling units and each of these units feed two high pressure coal feed systems. There are two process air compressors per gasification train. About 60% of the process air requirement is supplied by the process air compressors, with the remainder extracted from the combustion turbine located in the power island. Six proprietary Pressure Decoupled Advanced Coal (PDAC) feeders, developed at the PSDF, will supply each of the two gasifiers with raw lignite at a rate of 575 ton/hour.

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INTEGRATED GASIFICATION COMBINED CYCLE

Visualisation of the completed plant

View from the other side, showing Lignite Delivery Facility

A proprietary Continuous Fine Ash Depressurisation (CFAD) system and a proprietary Continuous Coarse Ash Depressurisation (CCAD) system cool and depressurise the ash for storing in a silo and for disposal. The syngas from the gasifier is cooled in the Primary Syngas Cooler to produce high pressure superheated steam, which is sent to the power island for power generation in the HP steam turbine. The syngas from the syngas coolers is routed to the Particulate Control Device (PCD), where the fine ash is removed by CFAD. The particulate free sour syngas is scrubbed with water in the syngas scrubber to remove halogens and other contaminants and to saturate the syngas to facilitate shift reaction. The syngas leaving the scrubber undergoes a water gas shift reaction where about 90% of CO is converted to CO2. The shifted sour syngas then passes through a COS hydrolysis reactor and is routed through the ammonia scrubber to remove ammonia, an acid gas removal (AGR) unit to remove sulphur and CO2 and a mercury removal bed before being sent to the gas turbine for power generation. The AGR unit employs UOP's SELEXOL process. The H2S and CO2 absorbers in the AGR unit remove over 99% of the H2S and a portion of the CO2 from the syngas using SELEXOL, a physical solvent. The captured H2S is subsequently stripped from the solvent using steam heat, producing a concentrated H2S stream, while the purified solvent is refrigerated and recycled to the absorption units. The concentrated H2S acid gas stream is routed to a sulphuric acid plant where the sulphur is converted into commercial grade sulphuric acid using Haldor Topse's WSA (Wet gas Sulphuric Acid) process. The removed CO2 stream is dehydrated and compressed and used for enhanced oil recovery. The condensed sour water from the syngas is stripped in three columns to remove H2S and CO2, which are sent back to the AGR unit, and saleable ammonia produced. Treated effluent from Meridian is used for make-up water. The plant is a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) facility.

some of the other aspects of the engineering design and execution worth noting include the following: Integration High level of heat integration between gasification, gas cleanup and power generation. System integration and controls. One of the goals during the process design phase of the project was to maximise the overall plant efficiency with carbon capture. Multiple options for heat integration between gasification, gas cleanup and power generation were evaluated. This has enabled the Kemper County process to meet a good plant heat rate while using coal with an average of 45% moisture and achieving over 65% CO2 removal. Steam is a product from the gasifier island and therefore a high level of heat integration helped to increase efficiency. Unlike a natural gas combined cycle plant where the natural gas flow from pipeline to the combustion turbine can be adjusted based on demand, the system integration in this IGCC plant requires integration between combustion turbine load requirements and coal and air feed to the gasifier. In addition, the extraction air from the compressor section of the combustion turbine provides partial air feed into the gasifier and the remainder is made up by process air compressors. This requires a high level of system integration to be able to operate the plant and meet the demand for power generation. Gasifier and support system design Thermal design: the gasifier was designed to contain high temperature burning coal. Pressure design: the gasifier required thorough finite element analysis. The gasifier is a double pipe loop that circulates ash by hydraulic balance with no moving parts. The layout between the gasifier and the structure and other equipment/piping is critical in order to prevent interferences. Also, "pull areas" must be established for maintenance. The differential deflection between the gasifier and the structure must be accounted for in the design as it places additional loads on both the gasifier and the structure. Significantly, the total weight of the gasifier exceeds 2500 tons and it is supported with a series of spring supports. The overall support system had to be designed for operating load, seismic load and thermal loads. Critical to the system are the differential thermal deflection tolerances required for gasifier operation. Although the supports

Transport Integrated Gasifier the basic concept

Cyclone/ disengager

Syngas Cyclone

Riser Coal Mixing zone O2/air steam Loop-seal

Standpipe

Coarse ash

O2/air

J-Leg

consist of a number of spring supports, the main supports consist of four special variable base spring cans for each gasifier. The sizes and loads of these spring cans presented unusual design and fabrication circumstances. Coal handling and feeding Pneumatic conveying of milled coal at high pressures and temperatures. Balancing requirements of low velocity to limit erosion, high velocity to stay above saltation velocity, and minimisation of gas usage for conveying and aeration. Providing means for fluidisation for cases where gravity discharge from bins may be a problem (bridging, rat-holing). Large vertical space required for equipment layout to assure correct angles for gravity chutes. The fluid bed drying system to be used on the KemperCountyIGCCprojectisemployedinawide variety of industries for drying solids, but has not been commonly used in conventional coal plants. A high level of heat integration is incorporated in the Kemper County design to recover heat from the process for use in the coal drying system. This minimises the use of steam for drying the coal. One engineering focus in the coal handling area is feeding the finely ground coal particles into a gasifier that is operating at over 620 psia. PDAC a technology to control coal flow into the gasifier developed at the PSDF will be used on the Kemper County project. By controlling the pressure differential between the feed hopper and the gasifier, the coal solids feed rate can be accurately controlled.
June 2012 Modern Power Systems

Engineering the Kemper County plant

The detailed engineering work for Kemper County is being executed by both KBR and Southern Company Services (SCS) with procurement and construction management by SCS. In addition to the engineering effort associated with the scale up to commercial scale,

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INTEGRATED GASIFICATION COMBINED CYCLE

Recycle gas compression Coal High pressure coal feeding High Transport Syngas temperature gasifier syngas cooling Coarse G-ash Recycle gas Water from coal drying Water gas shift reaction Sweet syngas Mercury removal CO2 Low temperature syngas cooling Sweet syngas CO2 and CO2 CO2 sulphur compression removal and drying

Coal milling & drying

Particulate collection Fine G-ash

Sour water

Acid gas Vent gas

WSA process

HP BFW

Air

Process air compressor

HP steam

Gasifier Island

Anhydrous Ammonia ammonia recovery

Sour water treatment

Sulphuric acid

To stack Condensate

Heat recovery steam generator HP, superheated steam Condenser Steam turbine

Gas turbine Power

Continuous ash withdrawal Depressurising and cooling of ash. Pneumatic conveying of ash. The large ash particles from the coal accumulate in the gasifier and need to be removed to maintain solids inventory in the circulating loop, and the smaller particles captured in the PCD also need to be removed from the system. In addition, the ash has to be cooled from around 1800F to 350F. To address the issue of ash withdrawal and cooling the CCAD and CFAD, both proprietary systems, were developed at PSDF. The systems work by using the pressure in the syngas to push the ash out of the bottom of the gasifier or the PCD. Carbon capture The SELEXOL process is used to remove H2S and CO2 from the syngas. About 90% of the CO in the syngas is shifted to CO2 to increase the partial pressure of CO2, which helps to lower the station service required in the SELEXOL unit and also to meet the CO2 pipeline purity requirements. Ammonia recovery Ammonia is recovered from sour water to produce a saleable product. The Kemper process is set up to recover anhydrous quality ammonia from sour water. Ammonia is stored in the ammonia storage tank where it can be used locally in the selective catalytic reduction system or trucked to other locations. However, if the ammonia storage tank fills up, and there is no transportation available to empty it, anhydrous ammonia can be recycled back to the gasifier. In this operating scenario, ammonia will ultimately be converted to N2 and H2 in the gasifier. At the time of writing, total project construction completion was greater than 25%, with total design and engineering 75% complete. There are currentlyover2000workersatthesitewithmore than 50 contractor and subcontractors engaged in construction. The project's peak construction force will be more than 2200. The steam turbine and lignite drying systems have been fabricated and delivered to the site. The gasifier and combustion turbines will be delivered to the site this summer. All of the major equipment has been procured. Nearly all of the deep foundations have been installed and over 66 000 cubic yards of concrete foundations have been poured. Structural steel erection began in the autumn of 2011 and is approximately 25% complete. Construction of the 41 miles of new 230 kV transmission lines, five substations, and reconductoring projects to connect the plant with the transmission system are underway and 60% complete. The treated effluent water line construction from Meridian Water Association is 65% complete, and the construction of the natural gas and CO2 pipelines will begin construction in June. All of the pipeline and transmission projects to support the project are scheduled to be completed in late 2013. The mine mouth facilities to be managed by Liberty Fuels began construction in December 2011. In April 2012, the dragline was purchased and equipment shipments began from the Port of New Orleans. The mine should be in service next summer and will supply MPS the plant with about 4.3 million t/y of lignite.

Combined cycle

Power

Block process diagram for the plant

HRSGs

Gas turbines

Steam turbine

Air compressors

HP coal feeders

CAD image showing basic plant layout

CO2 and H2S removal

Gasifiers (2)

Ammonia production

Construction status

Sulphuric acid production

Fluid bed dryer system

Carbon dioxide capture scheme

Refrig.

Refrig. CO2 absorbers Product CO2

CO2 flash tanks Water gas shift reactors H2S absorber

CO2 compression and drying To sulphuric acid CW

Steam

Cond

Cond

H2S stripper Recycle gas compressor

Sour syngas from gasifier

Acid gas concentrator

Steam

Syngas to turbine

To gasifier

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Modern Power Systems June 2012

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RUSSIAN FOCUS

The challenges of delivering a CCGT project in Russia... ...and how to deal with them

Building power stations in Russia is different from elsewhere. Construction of the Yajva combined cycle unit, located in the Perm region, proved extremely demanding. But the outcome was a highly successful project, delivered on time, and a power plant that is now achieving an excellent performance record. Fehmi Bayramoglu, ENKA, Istanbul, Tmur Lipatov, E.ON Russia, Moscow and Asil Gumrukcu, ENKA, Istanbul, Turkey
hen Russia opened up its power sector to foreign participation in 2006, with the break up of state owned utility RAO UES and the launch of an auction of stakes in newly created power companies, including the six wholesale generators (OGK 1-6), it was a requirement that winning bidders would commit to the construction of substantial new capacity. The outcome has been the addition of about 20 GW of new power plants. The Yajva plant, in the Perm region of Russia, is one of four new 400 MW combined cycle units (with another at Shatursk and two more at engineering (to meet TEO and Glasgovekspertiza requirements), design, procurement, construction, start-up, testing and commissioning, as well as training of personnel, including operators. The project scope included all auxiliary equipment such as steam/water cycle, a water treatment plant, control systems, electrical systems, instrumentation, gas compressors and an administration building. As well as ENKA, engineering was also carried out by Bechtel, CIMTAS pipe, and TEP Engineering, which acted as the Russian designer. In addition to Siemens, which supplied a 1xSCC5-4000F-1S power train (comprising gas turbine, steam turbine, generator and condenser), other major equipment suppliers included: CMI, heat recovery

Surgutsk) that E.ON has added to the Russian power plant fleet over the past five years, as a result of undertakings made following its acquisition of a 76% stake in OGK-4, now E.ON Russia (www.eon-russia.ru). The Yajva plant represents the first deployment of Siemens F class technology in Russia. On the basis of performance tests the net electrical output of the plant is 417 MW and the efficiency is 56.6%, the highest in the country. The EPC contractor was ENKA of Turkey (www.enka.com). The contract was lump-sum turn-key, covering all works including permit

Based on a presentation given at Arena International's New Build South-East Europe conference, Istanbul, 18-19 October, 2011.

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RUSSIAN FOCUS
steam generator, vertical natural circulation, unfired; ZTR (Ukraine), 20kV/220kV 500 MVA step-up transformer; Atlas Copco, booster gas compressor, 2 x 100%, 5-35 bar with 7 MW motor; CIMTAS/CIMTAS Pipe, steel structures and piping systems; EKE (Turkey), water treatment plant; and Kone (Finland), 370 t capacity overhead crane. The EPC contract was placed on 15 July 2008 and low level construction ("subzero" works, piling) started on 16 March 2009 (ie somewhat before final design approval, but this was considered a risk worth taking). The all-important and resource intensive step of getting approval of the design documentation by the Russian authorities (TEO and Glasgovekspertiza) was achieved on 15 May 2009. This was vital as it enabled work to proceed during the June, July, August construction season. It is also essential to get the design right for TEO approval because if you want to change anything later the complete approval process has to be gone through again, and until re-approval is achieved major construction works have to be suspended. Other milestone dates can be summarised as follows: first power plant concrete, 30 May 2009; HRSG steel structure, diffuser and condenser erection started, April 2010; gas turbine, steam turbine and generator transported to site, July 2010; hydrotest of HRSG, December 2010; gas turbine first firing, February 2011; 72 hour full plant test run, June 2011; performance test run completed, 4 July 2011; commercial operation, 8 August 2011; hand over to E.ON Russia (including permit to use and all approvals), 10 August 2011 on schedule (original contract), without claims, and with a 100% safety record. To deliver the project successfully was a major achievement, particularly when the major challenges are taken into account, notably: a very tight schedule; the need to comply with Russian standards, approvals processes (RTN PTU) and quality documentation; location of the plant and climate constraints on transportation; and managing the interface with other contractors contracted directly to E.ON Russia. How did we go about dealing with these issues in case of Yajva? Among the particular challenges of the Yajva project in terms of schedule was the large effort required to obtain TEO approval, which is critical. Also, there was no "float", or leeway, at the end of the schedule, which stipulated eight months between main equipment arrival and first fire, with no time for rework and no chance of recovering from any major failure to achieve a key date. In the Russian context, the permit engineering phase of a project, entailing TEO preparation and approval, is particularly demanding and requires a very detailed design information package. But there are also uncertainties about requirements, which are evolving. A full project team (apart from construction) was formed to support this approvals phase. The project management clearly communicated the schedule with all team members and early start dates were used. All project participants were fully committed to achieving the required quality and the basic approach was: "Do it on time, Do it right, Do it once". There was to be no rework. An engineering co-ordination team was established in Moscow to deal with the very detailed level of design information required for preparation of the TEO package. This proved successful and TEO approval was received on time. As part of the procurement process a supplier quality team was set up to carry out continuous inspections at vendor manufacturing yards and shops. All vendors were visited during manufacturing and shop tests carried out and assessments made of each vendor in terms of both quality and schedule. During the construction phase, civil and underground works had to be executed within the first construction season (May to November 2009) followed by the erection of the turbine hall and HRSG building during the winter of 2009/10. This allowed start of condenser erection in March 2010 and HRSG erection in April 2010. Working conditions were generally harsh after October, and cold weather was one of the particular obstacles that had to be overcome, with temperatures falling to -42C (-45C with wind chill) on 16 December 2009, which the coldest working day. The project design minimum temperature was -48C. A basic principle for keeping the project on track was that as soon as materials and equipment arrived at site they were immediately assembled, unless it could be proved it was not possible. This led to some unconventional erection sequences. For example, the majority of the HRSG building structural steel installation was completed before the erection of the HRSG itself inside the building because the structural steel was delivered to site early. This entailed more man-hours and the hiring of a larger crane (to subsequently lift HRSG components (all 3000 t of them) into the building through the roof) ie increased expenditure but was judged worthwhile because it gained about one month, providing some back-end contingency in the schedule. In fact, the decision to go ahead with the HRSG building before the HRSG itself proved crucial in delivering the project on schedule.
Siemens SCC5-4000F-1S power train at Yajva

Schedule challenges

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June 2012 Modern Power Systems

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RUSSIAN FOCUS
Left: assembly of HRSG building structural steel. Right: lifting of HRSG component into HRSG building through the roof

Whenever possible, activities started as soon as it was possible to start them (eg building of the control room), and in some cases predecessor items or perceived constraints were ignored. Similarly, the procurement approach was designed to minimise disruptions to the schedule. If it was considered any material might be subject to potential delays in delivery, alternatives were investigated and second orders placed. For critical items, extraordinary steps were taken to avoid delays. Mechanical and electrical erection and commissioning works continued when the weather was cold within heated buildings, while hydro tests and chemical cleaning of the HRSG were carried out in winter using oneoff project-specific procedures. Another key measure aimed at avoiding delay was setting up the commissioning team early in the project. The team was mobilised to site ahead of time to lead quality control activities as well as start testing and commissioning of available equipment and systems. The team was flexible in terms of work orders and commissioning team supervisors not only inspected construction work but also completed or corrected minor items themselves immediately without getting bogged down in paperwork. As well as building power plants ENKA also operates them (with three build, own and operate natural gas fired combined cycle power plants in Turkey, Gebze, Adapazar and zmir, totalling 3830 MW). Thus ENKA Power O&M teams (some 24 engineers and 39 technicians) supported critical activities at Yajva, on site and off site, including factory acceptance tests and supplier quality inspections.

committed to work with ENKA to avoid what we would regard as unwarranted insistence of the authorities on increased local scope claimed to be necessary due to the requirements of Russification. In the early stages of the project, within the civil construction phase, a Russian quality documentation team, consisting of 30 engineers and technicians, most of them of Russian nationality, was established. In the mechanical area the piping systems contractor, CIMTAS Pipe, assumed responsibility for Russification of their scope. This required repeating all pipe design work and calculations in accordance with the Russian norms. For the commissioning phase, to achieve approvals and PTU acceptance, a team in Moscow was set up to work with the plant owner. The approach has proved successful and the plant has been recognised as the first combined cycle facilty in Russia that fully meets the requirements of the grid operator in terms frequency control.

building a new bridge; and strengthening an existing bridge. In terms of the interface with companies contracted directly to the plant owner, E.ON Russia, particular issues arose when milestone dates for the switchyard, cooling tower and auxiliary boiler were missed and there was a major delay in the completion of cooling water pump station mechanical and electrical works. Creative engineering alternatives were developed where delay in achieving a milestone might have impacted on commissioning activities. Commissioning key dates were achieved by employing a number of workaround solutions, such as the following: use of a temporary HV cable (to get round delay in completion of switchyard works); deployment of temporary heating & piping (to get round delay in installation of auxiliary boiler); and use of temporary cooling water line (to get round delay in completion of cooling tower). Particularly radical action was required to deal with delays in the cooling water pump station building mechanical and electrical works. Together with the plant owner and the other contractor, a recovery plan was drawn up and implemented to get the pump station completed on time. As part of this plan ENKA agreed to work as a subcontractor under the other contractor. The imminent threat of a major delay occurring due to the pump station not being ready on time was thereby eliminated.

Interface with other contractors

Meeting Russian standards

The main equipment for Yajva was manufactured according to European standards but the plant had to comply with Russian standards, requiring re-analysis and recalculation. This is requirement is a process we call "Russification". During the contract bidding stage of the project, Russification was discussed with the plant owner and a mechanism for risk sharing agreed. Basically, ENKA would bear the costs of Russification up to a certain proportion of the lump sum price, while the owner

The river channels employed for heavy transport are only open between May and October, while heavy equipment had to be land transported for the last 50 km. During the permit engineering/TEO preparation and approval phase a transportation plan was prepared in parallel with contract negotiations, with ENKA assuming the schedule risk and and price risk associated with transportation, including infrastructure upgrades that might be required. In parallel with project TEO activities, design and approval of the necessary infrastructure upgrades were also accomplished. All local authorities were involved at the very earliest stages in order to avoid unpleasant surprises later on. Among the heavy items delivered to site were: 12 HRSG modules, each weighing between 109 tons and 212 tons, amounting to a total of 1771 tons, transported from South Korea, via Turkey; the generator, weighing 343 tons, transported from the USA, via Antwerp, Belgium; the gas turbine, weighing 308 tons, transported from Germany; the steam turbine, also transported from Germany, in three shipments, 200t, 58t and 23 t (stop/control valve assembly); and the main transformer, weighing 282.5 t, transported from Ukraine by railway. Various multi-modal transportation methods were used, including beach landing operations.The infrastructure upgrades included: construction of an unloading jetty;

Location, climate and transport limitations

Result

The end result of these efforts was that the Yajva project was commissioned and the commercial operation date achieved without a single lost time accident and ahead of the original contract schedule even though sufficient grounds existed for time extension. The project was executed without any compensation claims and within the original contract price in full compliance with international and applicable Russian norms, standards and permits, to the full satisfaction of the owner/operator, E.ON Russia. The achievement of this successful outcome was greatly helped by the respect and trust that built up between the ENKA and E.ON project teams and their determination to jointly achieve the project objectives. Another key factor was the team spirit of the major vendors, who genuinely co-operated to get the job done rather than limiting themselves to just a pure supply contract. The plant has operated with 99.59% availability (excluding scheduled shutdowns) since the beginning of commercial operation, MPS on 11 August 2011.

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Modern Power Systems June 2012

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