POWER August 2010 - 34

2010 MARMADUKE AWARD
Cleco's Madison Unit 3 Uses CFB
Technology to Burn Petcoke and
Balance the Fleet's Fuel Portfolio
With commercial operation of Madison Unit 3, Cleco Power now claims bragging
rights for owning the largest 100% petroleum coke-fired circulating
fluidized bed power plant in North America. For using readily available fuel
in an environmentally attractive manner, adopting fuel-flexible combustion
technology, balancing the utility's generation portfolio, and adopting
an innovative fuel-handling system design, Madison Unit 3 is the winner
of POWER's 2010 Marmaduke Award for excellence in operation and
maintenance. The award is named for Marmaduke Surfaceblow, the fictional
marine engineer and plant troubleshooter par excellence.
By Dr. Robert Peltier, PE
C
leco Corp. has provided electricity
for customers in central Louisiana
since 1934. Today, Cleco Power LLC
(Cleco) owns 2,532 MW of generating resources
through the regulated business that
serves about 277,000 customers in central
Louisiana and another 1,355 MW through
the unregulated assets owned by Cleco
Midstream Resources. With the start-up of
a new flex-fuel unit in Louisiana, the utility
has positioned itself to continue providing
low-cost, reliable electricity for years to
come while solving multiple asset management
problems.
Cleco, like many other utilities, found
itself with aging assets and an unbalanced
mix of generating resources, leaving it
vulnerable to a wildly fluctuating natural
gas market. By 2004, Cleco predicted two
events would occur in the next few years
given the fuel mix of its asset portfolio.
First, the company was expected to be short
of capacity in about six years, and second,
it was relying on natural gas to produce
about 70% of its power needs. Meanwhile,
its newest solid fuel plants were no longer
new. Dolet Hills, jointly owned by Cleco
and AEP SWEPCO, a 650-MW lignite-fired
plant, which went into commercial service
in 1986, was the most recent solid fuel plant
constructed by Cleco. Prior to that plant's
start-up was the Wyoming coal-burning
550-MW Rodemacher 2 (jointly owned by
Cleco, Louisiana Energy and Power Authority,
and Lafayette Utilities System), which
entered commercial service in 1982. Unit 1,
a 440-MW plant fired by natural gas or lowsulfur
fuel oil, was completed in 1975.
34
1. Best in class. Cleco Power spent about $1 billion to construct the 600-MW Madison Unit
3 solid fuel-fired unit, which entered commercial service in February 2010. Madison Unit 3 is
the largest circulating fluidized boiler plant in North America that burns 100% petroleum coke.
Lake Rodemacher (also known as Cleco Lake) is used by sportsmen and provides cooling water
for the three units at the plant. Courtesy: Cleco Power
A new integrated resource plan was developed
that would not only balance Cleco's asset
portfolio but also improve overall system
efficiency while containing rising fuel costs.
The plan also required significant structural
changes to and investment in the company's
asset base, such as:
■ Removing an obsolete 300-MW, natural
gas-fired, simple-cycle unit from the generation
fleet in 1998.
www.powermag.com
■ Purchasing a 50% ownership in the 1,160MW
Acadia Power Station (Unit 1), a
high-efficiency, gas-fired combined-cycle
plant, in February of this year. Entergy
Louisiana LLC, a subsidiary of Entergy
Corp., currently has a sale pending for
Unit 2 and 50% of the common assets.
Cleco operates and maintains the plant.
■ Announcing in July 2005 the planned
construction of the new $1 billion, 600MW
net Madison Unit 3 solid fuel-fired
POWER | August 2010

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POWER August 2010

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