POWER August 2017 - 26

REINVENTION AWARD
Flexibility, Efficiency,
and Low Emissions Make
Repowered Facility a Success
Courtesy: Pasadena Water and Power
The Glenarm Power Plant has been keeping the lights on around Pasadena, California,
for more than 110 years. The historic site has expanded over time and has
included a total of 17 different power generation units, the most recent of which,
GT-5, earned POWER's 2017 Reinvention Award. The unit didn't go online without a
hitch, but the end product gives the city its most efficient and flexible unit yet, with
an emissions profile that is one of the industry's best.
Aaron Larson
P
asadena, California, is probably most
famous for being home to the Tournament
of Roses Parade, held annually
on New Year's Day, and the Rose Bowl
game-the oldest college football bowl game
in the country. But between the first and second
playing of the bowl game, which spanned
a 14-year period from 1902 to 1916, a new
power plant was constructed and placed into
service on Glenarm St. at the end of Raymond
Ave. The steam plant and 200-kW CrockerWheeler
generator began powering Pasadena's
streetlights on July 4, 1907.
Since that time, the city has expanded the
Glenarm plant and added multiple generating
units to keep up with customer demand.
The now-14-acre site consists of two groups
of generating facilities bisected by the Los
Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation
Authority Gold Line tracks. The Glenarm
Plant resides to the west of the tracks while
the Broadway Plant is on the east side.
Efficient and Flexible Gas
Generation Needed
By 2009, the site was home to four natural
gas-fired turbine generators, but the city was
in need of another. As part of Pasadena Water
and Power's (PWP's) then-current Integrated
Resource Plan, a new unit, GT-5, was
26
proposed to replace Unit B-3 located on the
Broadway site. B-3 was touted as the U.S.'s
most-efficient unit when it entered service in
1965, but GT-5 would be nearly twice as efficient
as the old steam boiler equipment.
There were several benefits that could be
realized by repowering the Glenarm power
plant. Reducing operating, maintenance, and
fuel costs were certainly big factors, but maintaining
the city's ability to generate power
locally was also important. With renewable
energy such as wind and solar power growing
rapidly in California, the need for flexible generation
that could accommodate intermittent
resources also made a fast-starting gas turbine
a logical choice. On June 2, 2014, the Pasadena
City Council approved the construction
contract to add GT-5, with commercial operation
slated to begin in June 2016.
The unit would be a highly efficient, 71MW
GE LM6000 combined cycle unit (Figure
1). ARB Construction, a subsidiary of
Primoris Corp., was selected as the prime
contractor for the project. Innovative Steam
Technologies would supply the once-through
steam generator, and Shin Nippon would deliver
the steam turbine.
A formal groundbreaking event was held
on July 2, 2014, and work to remove outdated
equipment both above and below ground
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quickly began. Obsolete tunnels were demolished,
scrap metal was recycled, and the site
was prepared for construction activities.
Contributing to the Local
Community
The city wanted the project to benefit the local
economy as much as possible. With that in
mind, it developed a local participation plan
that called for 15% of the project's subcontracting
and procurement to be satisfied by
Pasadena businesses. The plan also targeted
25% of the project payroll to go to city residents.
The local hiring component was facilitated
through a Project Labor Agreement with
the Los Angeles and Orange County Construction
and Building Trades.
" The city feels very strongly about making
sure that local residents benefit in a direct way
from local projects, " Terry Tornek, mayor of
Pasadena, said in a interview recorded during
the GT-5 ribbon-cutting ceremony on February
24, 2017. " We had very aggressive goals
for local employment and beyond just hiring
people for the duration of the job, the real
success is if you can get people into a training
program-a union training program-that
will allow them to participate in that kind of
work on an ongoing basis. "
According to a July 2016 tally, the project
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POWER August 2017

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