Utility deregulation is a concept with an impact on power producers inside and outside the United States. For example, PowerSenoko Ltd., a subsidiary of Singapore Power, is converting its conventional, simple-cycle steam plant named Senoko Power Station Stage 1 to a combined-cycle power plant to triple the plant's output from 120 MW to 360 MW, and increase its efficiency to 58 percent. The newer, more powerful plant is expected to improve PowerSenoko's competitiveness in the deregulated Singaporean power market when the plant begins commercial operation during the first quarter of 2001.

ABB Power Generation will triple the output of the Senoko Power Station in Singapore by converting it to combined-cycle operation to supply additional electricity to a deregulated energy market.

The $180 million conversion contract was awarded to ABB Power Generation of Zurich, Switzerland, in April. Under terms of the contract, ABB will modernize the Senoko Power Station's existing steam turbine and replace the oil-fired boiler with ABB's GT26 advanced gas turbine and heat recovery steam generator. The latter unit will capture turbine exhaust to produce additional steam.

The 265-MW GT26 gas turbine uses sequential combustion to enhance fuel efficiency. This, combined with the turbine's high exhaust gas energy of 562 kg per second, will improve combined-cycle operation at the relatively compact site. Natural gas will primarily fuel the GT26, with diesel oil used as a backup fuel.

Michael Valenti

The engineers at Gas Power Systems LLC of Lake Zurich, Ill., were searching for an alternate application for the thousands of Avco Lycoming Mil-Spec T53 gas turbine engines that originally served in the Bell UH-1 Huey helicopters that were the workhorse of the American military in Vietnam. The GPS team adapted these reliable and compact — 2 feet x 4 feet — 1,500-hp engines into 1.2-MW Innovator generator sets to serve constant state, distributed power applications.

Gas Power Northwest, under contract to GPS, rebuilds the single-shaft T53 engines at its production facility in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, for their new peacetime role.

The Innovator generating set draws upon the reliability of the T53, proven in more than 40 million hours of operational history during its long years of military service, as well as the GPS proprietary control system.

The company originally intended the Innovator primarily for markets in South America, Asia, and Africa. However, the deregulating American energy market has opened domestic opportunities. The first commercial Innovator installation will be a distributed power application by the Texas Institute of Technology in Lubbock to provide peak demand service.

Michael Valenti

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