The Morrow Repower Undertaking, winner of POWER’s 2024 Reinvention Award, exemplified a strategic coal-to-gas conversion at a brownfield web site that masterfully mixed cutting-edge superior expertise with a dedication to monetary and neighborhood stewardship.
A decade in the past, Cooperative Power, an electrical cooperative, started to ponder the way forward for its fleet. Based in 1941 as South Mississippi Electrical shortly after the passage of the Rural Electrification Act, Cooperative Power had grown into the only technology and transmission cooperative within the state, furnished with the integral mission of assembly the facility necessities of 11 small distribution cooperatives spanning from the Mississippi Delta to the Gulf Coast. Within the greater than 80 years since, the Hattiesburg-headquartered co-op has operated beneath a member-owned not-for-profit mannequin, supplying its greater than 448,000 members in 55 of Mississippi’s 82 counties with wholesale charges that cowl solely the prices of offering energy and emergency contingencies, with remaining funds (capital credit) returned to members.
In 2012, the co-op joined the Midcontinent Impartial System Operator (MISO) as one portion of the regional transmission operator’s bigger balancing authority, permitting it to leverage low-cost vitality buying whereas discovering new avenues for its personal technology. As with all of Cooperative Power’s efforts, the measure was firmly embedded in its bigger crucial to provide inexpensive and dependable energy constantly. But it surely additionally sought to supply general market transparency as stringent new environmental rules and technological developments remodeled the market dramatically.
A specific concern rested on the way forward for the R.D. Morrow Sr. Producing Station, a 400-MW two-unit coal-fired facility Cooperative Power opened in 1978. Whereas the co-op had begun exploring repowering the landmark plant with pure gasoline way back to 2013, given uncertainties about the way forward for coal energy, by 2016, decisive motion turned crucial.
“It actually got here right down to economics,” Mark Smith, Cooperative Power’s senior vice chairman of Energy Era, advised POWER. “We had an roughly 3% capability issue on coal. The models couldn’t compete within the MISO market attributable to the price of operation, in addition to flexibility on the unit throughout operation.”
Together with the prospect of repeatedly complying with ever-more stringent environmental guidelines, the plant grappled with excessive prices to move its coal 440 miles to the location. To maintain the plant viable over the long run, Cooperative was deeply conscious it could have to “spend some huge cash,” Smith mentioned.
In 2016, Cooperative’s technology planning group started an expansive year-long research to discover its energy provide choices. “It’s one thing we do periodically to guage our fleet and decide probably the most cost-effective strategy to serve our members,” mentioned Trey Cannon, director of Era Initiatives with Cooperative Power. The research instructed a repower undertaking at Morrow was one of the best ways ahead.
“There have been quite a few causes,” Cannon famous. “We had a number of belongings there that have been in fine condition and possible for reuse,” such because the switchyard, the transmission system, circulating water programs, and the powerhouse. “After which perhaps most particularly, simply the dimensions of the steam generators themselves have been very nicely suited to energy a really massive gasoline turbine that’s very environment friendly,” he mentioned.
After a Burns & McDonnell research confirmed that repowering offered potential price financial savings of between 25% and 35%, Cooperative moved shortly. In June 2018, the co-op’s board cemented a choice to retire the unique two-unit plant and change it beneath a five-year formidable conversion plan with an advanced-class pure gasoline unit.
The 572-MW Morrow Repower undertaking started industrial operation in March 2023. Powered by a 60-Hz Siemens Power SGT6-9000HL paired with an present steam turbine, the distinctive baseload plant is at present a reliability powerhouse managed and dispatched by MISO.
A Rigorous Know-how Choice
As a vital first step, the co-op got down to discover—with an “open thoughts”—its massive heavy-duty gasoline turbine choices, fastidiously weighing selections from three main gasoline turbine producers that have been then accessible. “We might take the efficiency ensures from every of the three totally different gasoline turbine distributors, and we’d run them towards present manufacturing price fashions and decide their financial [potential] based mostly on future gasoline pricing and future energy prices and issues of that nature,” Smith famous. Siemens Power’s SGT6-9000HL routinely ranked excessive in flexibility attributes, together with for begin time, ramp fee, and turndown of the unit, in addition to in effectivity, Smith mentioned.
Nonetheless, the choice to order the expertise was not with out important danger. When Cooperative was mulling its choices in 2018, Siemens Power had freshly unveiled the HL-class—its largest, strongest, and best gasoline turbine mannequin. Whereas Siemens Power launched the expertise following a conservative method—together with a rigorous, almost decade-long evolutionary improvement section and testing at a full-scale rig close to Berlin—Morrow was in the end slated to develop into “serial quantity two” for the 9000HL within the 60-Hz market. However for Siemens Power, the Morrow repowering undertaking’s legacy is extra noteworthy as a result of additionally it is the world’s first baseload repower undertaking to characteristic an SGT6-9000HL.
As Hans Thermann, head of 9000HL Product Portfolio Administration for Siemens Power, advised POWER, the HL class was designed “with the vitality transition in thoughts” to assist the coal-to-gas shift. Whereas based mostly on Siemens Power’s legacy of H-, F-, and E-class expertise and structure, the superior air-cooled gasoline turbine line incorporates technological developments like a sophisticated combustion system to allow larger firing temperatures (above 1,600C), environment friendly inside cooling options for blades and vanes, and a confirmed rotor structure.
These attributes are integral for the excessive efficiencies and excessive ramp charges that coal-to-gas repower initiatives should obtain to thrive, and bolster reliability and affordability in trendy energy programs, Thermann mentioned. At Morrow, the hassle resulted in “roughly a 50% discount” in carbon dioxide emissions, he mentioned.
Thermann famous the machine’s versatility was showcased at Duke Power’s Lincoln Combustion Turbine Station in North Carolina. That undertaking’s 411-MW SGT6-9000HL, put in in April 2020 on the greenfield simple-cycle gasoline energy plant, represents the corporate’s first 60-Hz machine. Beneath an progressive four-year settlement with Duke Power, Siemens Power has continued to conduct validation testing at Lincoln whereas Duke Power makes use of the power for peaking energy wants.
“It’s geared up with a whole lot of further sensors to validate and check each side of the engine,” which has helped spur additional enhancements of key applied sciences and furnish initiatives like Morrow with examined options, Thermann mentioned. In August 2022, the Duke Power undertaking notably obtained two Guinness World Information for the very best energy output of a simple-cycle unit and the very best ramp fee—greater than 100 MW/minute.
Cooperative’s confidence within the expertise was cemented throughout the negotiation stage when Siemens Power supplied a complete long-term service settlement (LTSA) to keep up the height working effectivity of the gasoline turbine and generator all through the undertaking’s lifecycle. The contract lined components, repairs, subject companies, program administration, and distant monitoring and diagnostics, that are a part of Siemens Power’s Omniverse Digital Providers portfolio.
In the meantime, as a part of the LTSA, Siemens Power additionally employed a devoted technical subject adviser, who labored on the web site for a 12 months throughout the development section to deal with potential technical points. In accordance with Neal Hackett, Siemens Power’s Service Packages Portfolio supervisor, the association was essential in establishing a collaborative and clear partnership from the start, given the first-of-a-kind nature of a number of the parts.
When Cooperative was constructing the models, for instance, Siemens Power delivered the unit “as an empty hen” with out its blades and vanes as a result of testing on these parts was nonetheless underway on the North Carolina unit utilizing totally different coatings, airfoils, and configurations. And when the North Carolina facility workforce encountered a priority, the Morrow workforce “adjusted on the fly and altered some configurations,” Hackett mentioned. Each Siemens Power and Cooperative have been eager to align to make sure the tip product was tightly optimized to suit Morrow’s reliability objective. Cooperative in the end prolonged its contract to maintain the technical subject adviser on for one 12 months after the undertaking went industrial, Hackett famous.
A Lean, Worker-Led Success
Whereas the Morrow Repower Undertaking’s expertise pioneering is critical, the effectivity with which Cooperative—a financially constrained not-for-profit run by about 450 staff—accomplished this mammoth enterprise is extra profound. Smith advised POWER the undertaking’s aims have been met nicely forward of the five-year schedule that Cooperative’s board set out in 2018. Extra remarkably, the undertaking achieved industrial operation considerably beneath finances—with financial savings estimated at greater than $60 million.
Underlying the undertaking’s beautiful success is that Cooperative set out on the undertaking with a hands-on however lean mindset that thought of its dedication to its staff and surrounding communities. First, it contracted engineering companies agency Burns & McDonnell because the proprietor’s engineer for the undertaking. However moderately than pursuing a traditional engineering, procurement, and development (EPC) contract, the co-op managed the undertaking in-house alongside Burns & McDonnell.
Smith defined: “We paid them to supply important companies, however the entire contracts have been on our papers. They’d no pores and skin within the sport like an EPC would. Principally, all the danger was Cooperative Power’s.” Smith mentioned the undertaking concerned not less than 57 contracts—35 for gear procurement and 22 for development and companies. The technique alone resulted in an estimated $50 million in financial savings, he mentioned. “And the sweetness for us is that we received to manage [all parts of the job] from undertaking inception all the best way to the tip,” he mentioned.
Extra notable is that the method relied closely on Morrow’s employees, which Cooperative had already pared down from 110 to 61 by way of a “pure attrition” technique that originally sought to keep away from layoffs when the plant’s future was unsure. Supplemented by Burns & McDonnell employees and contractors, the workers took on extraordinary possession of the undertaking, executing a number of roles throughout all phases, together with demolition, commissioning, and startup of the brand new unit. Smith mentioned operators accomplished numerous duties together with the set up of insulation and lagging, and mechanics and technicians carried out demolition actions, amongst different issues.
Undertaking administration was additionally lean, spearheaded by Cannon alongside a single development supervisor, a small provide chain division that dealt with gear procurement, and a authorized division that dealt with contracts. Cooperative additionally managed to contract extremely rated expertise. “We had the cream of the crop on the market at that job web site,” Smith mentioned, partly owing to the lax labor market.
Over your complete undertaking length, Cooperative staff collectively invested almost 300,000 work hours, whereas at development peak, 400 staff have been onsite on the Morrow Repower Undertaking. Remarkably, crews achieved industrial operations with an nearly good security file—made attainable by way of strict security protocols and intensive coaching.
“They simply actually put their coronary heart and soul into it,” Smith burdened. The payoff was immense. “We’ve got calculated that our staff contributed over $12 million to the undertaking finances in discount of prices,” he mentioned.
In accordance with Cannon, the undertaking additionally benefitted from Cooperative’s prolonged and thorough planning course of. “By the point we broke floor, over 90% of the ultimate design was full,” he defined. “We have been, I assume, calculated and deliberate about that as a result of we needed to get it proper and never have an effect on our members. This was the most important undertaking our firm had ever taken on by far—it was an enormous deal.”
Smith underscored that the undertaking additionally leveraged “a stroke of luck” with its fortuitous timing. Whereas the COVID pandemic imposed extreme journey limitations, delivery delays, and provide chain points—together with for Siemens Power—Cooperative discovered a rare silver lining, because it benefitted from lowered competitors within the development, labor, and supplies markets as regional initiatives have been delayed or halted. “We have been actually blessed,” Smith remarked. “If we have been to do that undertaking at present, we’d be wanting most likely at two and a half instances the price,” he mentioned.
Smith famous that the payoff will, nonetheless, multiply within the years to come back. “This undertaking really remodeled our cooperative and positioned us nicely for the long run,” he mentioned. “We’re extremely happy with what our workforce achieved.”
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
