POWER October 2020 - 29

TOP PLANT
1. Local officials gathered with company executives
at the groundbreaking for Competitive
Power Ventures' (CPV's) Fairview Energy Center
in 2017. From left to right, Mark Pasquerilla,
president, Greater Johnstown Regional Partnership;
Bruce Baker, Jackson Township supervisor;
Eiichi Inamura, chairman, Osaka Gas
USA; Gary Lambert, CEO, CPV; Katy Wilner,
regional general manager, GE Power; and Mike
Resca, CPV's senior vice president of renewable
development. Courtesy: CPV
Ahrens talked about challenges that
had to be overcome during construction,
many related to the project's location.
" The project schedule resulted in
the underground work being performed
during the first winter period and the
manpower peak being reached during
the second winter period, in addition to
wet and windy conditions encountered
during the summer months, " he said.
" Kiewit optimized their execution plan,
which required the project schedule to
include a second shift for a portion of the
work. This required the development and
implementation of a noise mitigation plan
in coordination with Jackson Township to
allow a second shift and weekend work to
occur without impacting the neighboring
community. This provided opportunities
for the project team to address weather
impacts and reduce the schedule. "
Much of the equipment for the job site
was delivered by rail. That created another
challenge, as the closest immediately available
rail siding was about six miles away.
" During construction coordination
with the rail authorities, it was determined
that one of the rail sidings identified
during the development phase would
not be available to use for unloading and
transloading to specialized equipment for
hauling to site, " Ahrens said. " An existing
rail siding was provided as an alternative,
however, the siding was abandoned and
needed to be improved. Coming together,
CPV and Kiewit worked closely with
local agencies to develop and execute an
aggressive detailed plan and schedule to
permit, engineer, and construct/improve
the rail siding to meet equipment deliveries
and avoid delays. "
Ahrens told POWER that collaboration
solved another problem. " While preparing
to first fire the combustion turbines (CTs),
the CTs were placed on turning gear for
October 2020 | POWER
final check-out and it was discovered that
the generator equipment phasing was
installed opposite of the design drawings,
and different than the transformer
phasing, " he said. " Initial estimates developed
indicated it would take two to three
months to switch the generator phasing.
However, Kiewit, CPV, and GE worked
collaboratively and developed an alternate
plan that involved modifying the iso-phase
ductwork. Using this alternative plan, the
field repairs were completed in under
three weeks, resulting in minimal impact
to the schedule. "
The dual-fuel configuration also meant
potential problems and risk in that area
had to be addressed. " Vaporizing liquid
ethane fuel and blending with the normal
pipeline natural gas for a combined cycle
plant of this scale required early engagement
of engineering and commissioning
to identify key risks, " Ahrens said. " Early
on, a plan was developed between CPV,
Kiewit, and GE to reduce risk to the project
performance and schedule. "
Environmental and Economic
Impacts
With the plant achieving commercial operation,
Favinger noted a meaningful impact
to the PJM power market from Fairview.
" As a new plant goes online ... it usually
displaces the higher cost, older ones that
usually have higher air emissions, " he said.
CPV Fairview already is providing the
Jackson Township region with revenue.
CPV will donate $500,000 annually to
the community through the life of the
plant, through a " host payment " agreement
with the township. That amount
could grow incrementally each year.
Township officials have touted the importance
of that payment, noting that as
of last year the township's entire tax base
from both residential and business taxpayers
was just $151,000. Officials said
the CPV payment will go into an account
managed by the Community Foundation
for the Alleghenies, and the township can
spend the money on community benefits
such as park upgrades or other amenities.
It also could provide funds for much-needed
road-paving projects.
Pandemic Protocols
CPV Fairview, which is operated by NAES
Corp., was only in operation for a few
months prior to the onset of lockdowns
due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Favinger
said CPV implemented pandemic plans
across all the company's owned assets,
and detailed some of the new protocols
specific to CPV Fairview's operations:
www.powermag.com
POWER POINTS
Winning Attributes
✔ CPV Fairview is the only GEsupplied
facility with dual ethane
and natural gas capability.
✔ The plant was built in 28 months,
far ahead of schedule. It required
2.6 million man-hours to complete
and utilized more than 600 union
labor workers, with an impressive
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) safety record
of zero lost-time injuries.
✔ CPV Fairview uses industrial raw
water from the Cambria Somerset
Authority (CSA) for non-contact
cooling purposes. The water is
returned to CSA as reclaimed water
for further potential industrial use.
✔ The Fairview site was once a
salvage yard. The brownfield site
was revitalized for the project,
which included removal of
178,355 tons of buried debris, 10
underground storage tanks, and
0.63 miles of underground piping.
■ The plant was locked down, and only
pre-screened employees and contractors
were allowed onsite.
■ Onsite security personnel conducted
temperature checks at each entry gate.
■ CPV provided personal protective equipment
(PPE) to each onsite worker, and
after the initial wave of the virus, stockpiled
supplies to prepare for a second
wave.
■ Professional cleaning services sanitized
all surfaces regularly, and each
plant installed extra wash and sanitizing
stations.
■ Workers were scheduled in staggered
shifts that adhered to social distance
guidelines. Workers followed routed
walking paths and parking patterns.
■ Plant operators were separated and
conducted all business from individual
workstations.
Those protocols align with what
Favinger called CPV's mission: " To increase
America's energy sustainability
by providing safe, reliable, cost-effective,
and environmentally responsible electric
power. " ■
-Darrell Proctor is associate
editor for POWER.
29
http://www.powermag.com
POWER October 2020

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