POWER October 2021 - 34

TOP PLANT
ramping, making it the perfect fit to provide
gas-free reserves, net-load following,
and peak energy when it is needed
most. Among the benefits are:
■ Duration of Gas. The plant provides
98 MW of continuous output, with 20
MW of battery capacity to help ensure
Pmax (the maximum normal capability
of the generating unit) is reached
when needed.
■ Flexibility of Storage. The battery systems
provide +/- 20 MW of instantaneous
output throughout the operating
range. This allows a true blended output
in which the power split is optimized
to the resource best equipped
to respond, which delivers the highest
performance at the lowest cost.
■ Larger Operating Range. With a Pmin
of 0.00 MW with or without the gas
turbine running, the range is effectively
100% of plant capacity. The station
allows spinning reserve without
gas burn, highly accurate fast-ramping
regulation, and immediate response
net-load following.
■ Local Reliability Support. The plant supplies
much-needed generation for local
reliability in Southern California Edison's
Western Los Angeles Basin subarea.
■ Key Project for Integrating Renewables.
SERC provides rapid-response
delivery of energy and voltage support
services that are essential to grid reliability
and stability as more intermittent
renewable energy sources are
integrated into the electrical grid.
Meeting Deadlines Amidst
Challenges
SERC is located at 10711 Dale Avenue on
the southeast corner of Pacific Street and
Fern Avenue in the City of Stanton. Wellhead
project managers told POWER that
the project layout was " perhaps the most
significant challenge faced by the construction
team. " The shape of the roughly
4-acre property is long and narrow with a
storm channel running through the middle
of it and high-voltage lines running over a
small portion of the site. SERC worked
closely with the engineering and construction
teams, including POWER Engineers,
ARB Inc., and TTS Construction Corp., to
find solutions to these layout challenges.
Because of the project's greater than
50 MW size, the CEC licensing process
was used, which required approximately
two years of project development and
certification before construction could
begin. The CEC approval was granted in
late 2018. The following timeline shows
34
some of the project's major milestones:
■ Pre-construction activities-January
2019.
■ Groundbreaking-February 2019.
■ Major equipment installation began-
September 2019.
■ Completed major equipment installation-April
2020.
■ Commercial operation of gas turbine
plant-July 2020.
■ Commercial operation of the battery
plant-October 2020.
The project team faced a significant
challenge right from the start. Soon after
the groundbreaking, Stanton received
an abnormally large amount of rainfall,
which affected the over-excavation, offhaul,
and disposal of soils. This significantly
slowed the civil works.
To complicate matters, COVID-19
became a concern in early 2020 as the
project was in full swing. This forced additional
measures to be implemented to
ensure worker safety, in accordance with
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
and California Occupational Safety
and Health Administration guidance.
Through the course of the project, which
included more than 200,000 man-hours
worked by craft labor, there were only
seven events requiring first aid, no losttime
or recordable accidents, and remarkably,
no workers contracted COVID-19.
Tim Bofman, Wellhead's construction
site manager, observed that adherence
to general power plant and construction
site safety culture likely contributed to
this success. Furthermore, despite the
trouble, the project was designed with
adequate schedule float to allow the
construction team to meet the required
commercial operation dates as planned.
A Pillar for the Community
During the development phase of the
project, SERC executed a Project Labor
Agreement with the California Building
Trades, which meant the project was constructed
with almost exclusively union
labor. As such, SERC had very high confidence
in the proper training of the craft
provided. During the height of construction,
craft labor exceeded 100 persons.
The project includes a unique aesthetic
treatment with a roofless building surrounding
each of the SERC units. Clock
towers hide the gas turbine exhaust
stacks, providing a new and unique landmark
for the community (see opening
image). The roofless building also serves
as an acoustic barrier. Wellhead Project
www.powermag.com
POWER POINTS
Winning Attributes
✔ The Stanton Energy Reliability
Center is the first greenfield
application of a cutting-edge hybrid
system called EGT, which integrates
battery energy storage systems with
GE LM6000 gas turbines.
✔ Work was completed on schedule
during the COVID-19 pandemic with
no workers testing positive for the
virus, and no lost-time or recordable
accidents.
✔ The station provides reliable
and stable generation to support
Southern California Edison's
Western Los Angeles Basin subarea
of the power grid.
Manager Paul Cummins reported that
SERC is performing very well with respect
to acoustic emissions.
Concerning the project's air permit, Cummins
said the limits for criteria pollutants are
applicable regardless of unit power output.
" To accommodate this requirement, SERC
worked with its Emission Reduction Unit
(ERU) vendor, Mitsubishi Power Americas,
to include adequate design margin for a
range of power outputs, " he said.
Wellhead's patented Smart Water technology
has also played a big role. The Smart
Water technology allows water injection
for NOx
reduction to be used throughout
the entire operating range. The combination
of Smart Water and ERU technology
has been instrumental in controlling emissions.
" The equipment has functioned
very well to date, " Cummins said.
" The project had wonderful community
support, " Kara Miles, owner, president, and
CEO of W Power, told POWER. " The owners
have responded to this in various manners to
include a public-private commitment to the
Stanton Central Park and STEM [science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics]
scholarships for the local high schools. "
The SERC units have lived up to expectations,
and even exceeded them with
respect to reliably providing greenhouse
gas-free ancillary services the majority
of the time, and peaking energy only
when necessary. As of Sept. 1, 2021, the
year-to-date availability for the plant was
slightly above 99%. This is clearly worthy
of recognition and POWER congratulates
the SERC team on a job well done. ■
-Aaron Larson is POWER's
executive editor.
POWER | October 2021
http://www.powermag.com
POWER October 2021

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