POWER October 2021 - 28

TOP PLANT
Ingenuity Boosts Efficiency at
Colombian Gas Power Plant
Courtesy: Kiewit
The 1993-built 610-MW Prime Termoflores gas plant in Barranquilla, Colombia,
set out to boost its efficiency and ramp up performance to provide reliable
backup to the region's volatile, hydro-reliant power market. For the gains,
which came from a custom-engineered set of projects that were exemplarily
executed, Prime Termoflores is recognized as a 2021 POWER Top Plant.
Sonal Patel
T
he uptick of renewable power
across the world has ramped up
concerted attention on gas power
generation's crucial role as a backup power
resource. But in Colombia, as with
many of Latin America's largest economies,
that recognition has existed for decades.
Though the nation is a natural gas
producer and importer, the country has
depended on hydropower for more than
70% of its installed capacity for most
of its power-generating history, owing
largely to its mountainous terrain and rich
river systems that drain into the Pacific
Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
In 1992, however,
that dependence
steeped the country in a chronic power
crisis when a shift in the Pacific current
prompted an especially severe El Niño
event and left its hydroelectric reservoirs at
historic lows. That event triggered a series
of power sector reforms that sought to diversify
the country's power resources via
the introduction of a wholesale power market.
While the reforms have since spurred
reliability mechanisms and other measures,
the power market is today characterized by
highly volatile spot price outcomes given
the unpredictability of hydro availability. To
have any edge in the market, the country's
gas generators-which must also compete
for about 30% of domestically produced
gas despite the sporadic use of gas power-exemplary
performance typically relies
on efficiency achievements, however small
they may be.
At Termoflores, a two-unit 610-MW
combined cycle gas turbine power plant
in Barranquilla, a major industrial city in
28
the northern Caribbean Coast region, the
stakes are even greater, given the region's
rapid urban growth and economic development,
which is thought to be the highest
in Colombia. " When the plant was
built in 1993, it was sited outside of the
city, but today we're surrounded by new
development, " Plant Manager Jose Serje
told POWER. But the plant is also sited at a
key confluence in the electrical system that
requires its reliable performance, especially
during El Niño phenomena, which often requires
that " the plant will give all the power
we have to assist with relieving transmission
system constraints, " he explained.
Profitability, sustainability, and environmental
responsibility are also key
priorities, and they underlie Termoflores'
corporate mission. The plant is one of
two Colombian thermal plants owned by
EnfraGen LLC, a developer, owner, and
operator of grid stability and value-added
renewable energy infrastructure businesses
across Latin American investment-grade
countries co-headquartered
in New York and Houston, he noted.
The Value of Workforce Ingenuity
Following yet another devastating El Niño
pattern in 2016 that left large portions of
Colombia parched and at severe risk of
power blackouts, Prime Termoflores set
out to identify all possible efficiency improvements.
One caveat was that the
plant team should perform any overhaul
work without taking the units offline for
a prolonged time, Serje said.
The opportunities were numerous.
Flores I is a 160-MW combined cycle gas
turbine (CCGT) consisting of a Siemens
www.powermag.com
1. Prime Termoflores redesigned its generator
and lube oil cooling systems. The project
involved replacing three cooling fans of the
generator glycol system and two fans of the
lubrication oil system. The system now feeds
circulating water directly to the generator
coolers instead of glycol and to supply the
new Alfa Laval plate heat exchanger for the
lube oil system. Courtesy: Prime Termoflores
W501D5 combustion turbine and a Mitsubishi
steam turbine. Flores IV, a larger
unit of 450 MW, has two CCGTs, a Siemens
W501D5 and a W501FC gas turbine,
plus a Siemens SST-700/900 steam turbine.
The plant consulted with its in-house
operations and maintenance (O&M)
team-skilled and experienced plant
workers who are familiar with its components
and processes-to identify energy
efficiency solutions, as well as with a thirdparty
company to conduct an energy efficiency
study of the plant air compressors.
Ultimately, it settled on several projects
that would ensure a substantial reduction
POWER | October 2021
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POWER October 2021

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