DOE Seeks US Power Company for Adv. PFBC repowering design study

Commerce Business Daily 4/13/96

The DOE is seeking a volunteer U.S. power industry electrical generation company interested in participating in a site specific study to develop a conceptual design for Advanced Cycle 2nd Generation Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustion (PFBC) technology as a coal fueled repowering concept at the actual power industry company’s electrical generation site.

The site should be well-suited to such a repowering. Site selection preferred characteristics should align to the following: (1) Coal – Fueled Plant, (2) Currently Operating, (3) Subcritical Steam Plant, (4) 100 TO 300 MWe Single Unit Capacity or multiple units with combined capacity in this range, and (5) Medium to High Sulfur content in Fuel. The DOE and power industry participant will visit the site and develop lists of the necessary information about the plant, operations, fuels, and regional economics to allow preparation of the evaluation.

The DOE will work with the participant company to develop generation production costing evaluations to establish the capacity factor for each option for the unit dispatched using the host participant’s particular operating environment. This will be used to develop meaningful yearly projections of expected use, allow evaluation of the number of start-stop cycles avoided because of the improved dispatch with the repowering technologies, and to develop industry-method-based economic comparisons of the options. The DOE will develop a conceptual design and economic evaluation using procedures familiar to electrical generation company planners. The DOE will evaluate the technical requirements for equipment/plant compatibility as well as the economics and schedule requirements for a repowering project. Advantages and practical aspects of repowering will be determined. Issues such as remaining equipment life’ demolition requirements, spare parts requirements, permitting, and dispatch requirements will be addressed.

All power company participant information will be conducted under policies that would provide strict nondisclosure of information these companies identify as being ”company proprietary information.” The power plant site will not actually be modified, but sufficient detail will be developed to show the feasibility of upgrading the participant’s site to Advanced Cycle 2nd Generation PFBC technology.

A final report summarizing all study activities will be prepared and submission of a technical paper for publication on this work, and attendance at a conference is suggested by the DOE.

If your company is interested in a volunteer partnership with the DOE to develop a conceptual design for High Efficiency Advanced Cycle 2nd Generation PFBC technology as a repowering concept, please respond in writing providing background information about your company along with information regarding the proposed repowering site (e.g., coal fuel type, limestone/dolomite availability, repowering unit size (MWe)).

To be considered for this volunteer partnership your response must be received no latter then 4:00 P.M. EDT on May 3, 1996. All questions concerning this matter should be addressed to Mr. Robert Travers at (301) 903-6166, DOE Office of Fossil Energy.