Recent power plant contract awards

Egypt

* Electricité de France has placed a contract with Alstom for condensing and feedwater heating equipment for the Suez and Port Said fossil-fired power plants in Egypt. The two plants comprise four 340 MW generating units. Delivery of the first set of equipment is expected within 11 months of contract signature, with successive sets following at three month intervals.

Finland

* The Finnish power company Fortum has signed a contract with Canadian energy company Epcor Utilities Inc under which Fortum will sell Epcor 50 000t of carbon dioxide emissions. The contract is for the current year only, with no commitment for succeeding years.

The deal was made possible because Fortum has reduced emissions at its Joensuu plant in Finland by 200 000t, annually. This has been achieved by converting the peat-fired boiler at the station to a fluidized bed boiler and by increasing the amount of biofuel used to fire the plant to around 50 per cent. Fuel includes bark, sawdust and wood chips in addition to peat.

Fortum is a member of the World Bank's Prototype Carbon Fund.

The aim of this fund is to develop projects to implement the Kyoto Protocol. Emission trading is a controversial approach to controlling climate change. It is much favoured by the US government but many European governments are not enthusiastic because it allows companies and nations to buy the right to continue polluting instead of reducing their emissions.

Mexico

* A consortium of ABB, the Spanish company Isolux and Mexico's Techint has won a $250 million contract to develop the transmission infrastructure in Mexico. As part of this scheme, ABB has won a $80 million order to design, build and finance part of a 750km high voltage power transmission system.

The aim of the consortium project, commissioned by Mexico's Comision Federal de Electricidad, is to speed the development of the country's electrical infrastructure by improving links between the industrial centres in the states of Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosi, 500 km north of Mexico city, and the main Mexican grid.

The scope of ABB’s share of the project includes five power transmission lines, four substations and electrical systems and equipment. Substations will be linked using optical fibre communications systems for network control. The systems are expected to be in place by the middle of 2002.

Singapore

* VA Tech in collaboration with Intraco Ltd has won an order to supply PowerGrid Pte Ltd of Singapore with gas insulated switchgear. The contact also includes installation of the switchgear in four substations, part of the extension of the Singapore electricity supply system.. This order builds on an order gained in 1998 for switchgear for PowerGrid's Kabibukit Avenue 4 substation. The value of the order is close to $10 million.

USA

* Calpine Corp has signed a contract with OSI Software Inc for installation of a real-time information management system across all its power generation sites. The software, called the PI System, will be installed over the next 12 months.

PI will be run by Calpine on Microsoft's Windows NT. The software will provide plant data to application servers which will then make the data available for analysis by any authorised user within Calpine.

The power generator currently has 46 facilities in the USA and Canada where the system will be installed. This included around 26 800 MW of base load capacity and 5100 MW of peaking capacity.

Calpine has also purchased a five-year technical services agreement under which OSI will provide round-the-clock support and keep the software updated with the latest versions as they are released. OSI has installed its PI System at more than 1000 generating facilities, the company claims.

* Northeast Utilities has awarded a contract to supply nuclear fuel for the Millstone Point Unit 2 nuclear power plant to Siemens Power Corp. The contract, which will last until the end of the current licensed life of the plant in 2015, extends an existing contract under which Siemens has been supplying fuel to Millstone 2 since 1989.

Millstone Unit 2 is a pressurised water reactor manufactured by Combustion Engineering. It has a generating capacity of 870 MW. The plant, at Waterford, Connecticut, has been in commercial operation since 1975.

Siemens will supply its High Thermal Performance assemblies to Millstone 2. These will be manufactured at the company's engineering and manufacturing facilities in Richland, Washington. The initial fuel reload under the new contract is expected to be delivered in the autumn of 2003.

* Alstom is to supply the Salt River Project with a heat recovery steam generator for a combined cycle plant being constructed at the Kyrene generating station near Tempe, Arizona. The steam generator will recover heat from the exhaust of a natural-gas fired GE 7FA gas turbine.

The HRSG will be equipped with supplemental duct firing and nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide reduction systems. It will contribute 115 MW towards the plant's projected 250 MW capacity.

Construction is due to start in August this year, with completion scheduled for May 2002. The Salt River Project is the third largest publicly owned power utility in the USA.

* El Paso Merchant Energy has selected Caminus Corp to supply a gas transaction management system. The system, called Zai*Net GasMaster, will be used by El Paso for deal capture, gas balancing, pipeline nominations and accounting. The system will also provide the company with meter allocation, ownership management, supply planning and balance management capabilities.

El Paso Merchant Energy Co is part of El Paso Energy Corp. which owns the largest natural gas pipeline system in North America as well as power generation interests.

* Alstom has won a series of orders to supply steam turbines worth around $90 million. The orders include two 200 MW steam turbine generator sets for Pinnacle West Corp power plant in Arizona. Construction will begin in 2001 with commercial operation set for August 2002.

In Louisiana the company will provide a 180 MW steam unit for Gilbert Southern Corp's cogeneration plant at Carville while in Alabama it will supply two 280 MW steam turbine generators to Southern Electric; this deal entails an option for six further units.

American Electric Power will take delivery of a 200 MW unit in Texas while a 184 MW steam turbine generator set will be installed at Connectiv’s Hay Road power plant in Newark, Delaware.

United Arab Emirates

* EnelPower has ordered from Alstom three heat recovery steam generators and two auxiliary boilers for the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority's Jebel Ali K phase II power and water plant. The HRSGs will recover heat from the exhaust of three Siemens V94.3 gas turbines fired with natural gas.

The three steam generator units will provide an additional 100 MW each to the plant's overall capacity of 1000 MW, supplying steam to two 150 MW steam turbines. The two auxiliary boilers will provide process steam for a desalination plant.

Construction is due to begin in June 2001, with the full plant in operation by December 2002.