POWER September 2016 - 35

TOP PLANTS
1. Unique gas solutions. The three GE TM2500 aeroderivative mobile dual-fuel turbines
installed by APR Energy within the tight 90-day project timeframe required its engineers to
design customized filtration and gas compression solutions to accommodate low pipeline pressure.
Courtesy: Tamer El Sharkawy
POWER POINTS
Winning Attributes
Setting up a three-unit 60-MW
gas-fired power plant within 90
days to meet the urgent power
needs of a large-scale chemical
plant that is under construction
Ensuring reliability through
redundancy
Designing and implementing
customized gas filtration and
compression solutions
flexible turbine solutions spanning 15 MW to
450 MW for energy-intensive industries reeling
from power shortages and in dire need
of rapidly deployable solutions in countries
including Australia, Argentina, Botswana,
Guatemala, Senegal, Libya, Uruguay, Myanmar,
and many more. Today, APR Energy has
installed more than 3 GW of capacity across
more than 30 countries.
At the time, the contract signed with
ETHYDCO for three natural gas-burning GE
TM2500 aeroderivative mobile dual-fuel turbines
had an estimated value exceeding $30
million. For Anderson, who serves as chief
operating officer for the company (co-founder
Campion serves as chairman and CEO),
it was the " result of many months of work
and gives us a foothold in one of the largest
markets in the region. " As is standard with its
full-service package, APR Energy's contract
also included design, installation, and commissioning
work for the plant, as well as operation
and maintenance.
Building on Sand
While the chemical facility requires just
about 30 MW of generating capacity from
the turbines-which have an individual ISO
rating of 20 MW to 25 MW (depending on
local conditions)-ETHYDCO requested
that APR Energy operate three turbines at
the same time to provide redundant capacity,
aiming specifically to ensure uninterrupted
power. " Reliability was so important that the
customer contracted three turbines capable
of generating 72 MW to deliver a guaranteed
30 MW of electricity. We had redundancy
throughout the plant, " noted Jason Doll, an
APR Energy electric design engineer.
September 2016 | POWER
" A power outage at a petrochemical facility
can shut a plant down for days, since all
processes need to be restarted. That meant
that this project had a lot more pressure than
most, " explained Eduardo Perez, another
APR Energy electrical engineer. Currently,
APR Energy runs all three turbines at 10
MW, so if one fails, operators can instantly
increase the other two to 15 MW and avoid
any power outages, he said.
But ensuring that reliable power generation
also meant that APR Energy's engineers
had to come up with customized solutions to
enable the turbines to run on the local supply
of natural gas and to accommodate pipeline
gas compression of just 70 psi to 80 psi (Figure
1). By comparison, large industrial facilities
and utilities in the U.S. generally receive
gas at pressures between 30 psi and 650 psi.
Also potentially disruptive was that the pressure
of the natural gas was highly fluctuating.
This posed a challenge for the machines that
could potentially be destroyed by pressures
that are too low or too high, the company said.
" The majority of companies like ours
won't go to places with low gas pressure, "
said Rami Abusoufeh, an APR Energy mechanical
engineer. " They want 300 psi or
more. We were able to design customized
filtration systems and compressors in-house
that gave us the flexibility to operate with different
gas pressures, different ambient temperatures,
and uncertain gas quality. "
Meanwhile, APR Energy noted that the region
in which the chemical plant complex is
being built has also been historically avoided
by energy facility developers, owing to its " extremely
soft sand [that is] almost like dust and
can thus also harm the units used. " The comwww.powermag.com
pany
said it sidestepped that potential problem
from the start because its units are already designed
to survive rough and harsh conditions.
Otherwise, the most prominent challenge
the project faced was meeting the promised
90-day timeframe. During that period-with
a construction crew of up to 85 local workers
who spent every day, including Christmas
and New Year's Day, onsite-APR Energy
tackled a number of potential delays posed
by " numerous customer change requests. "
Then, it faced lengthy delays of critical
equipment at customs. " There were many
delays and changes during construction, but
we were able to react-even if it meant going
to the local market to purchase piping, nuts
and bolts, oil, and tools. The customer didn't
understand how we completed the project so
fast, " Abusoufeh noted.
Despite hurdle after hurdle, just weeks
after construction began in November 2015,
the project went online in January 2016.
A Breakthrough with Long-Term
Implications
In hindsight, however, the project has been a
breakthrough on many fronts for APR Energy.
" This was a project full of 'firsts' for us, "
said Tom Michaud, a project manager. " It
was our first turbine installation using natural
gas, so this was a new technology for us. It
was also the first private chemical industry
customer we've had. "
For APR Energy, successful completion
of the project-which is feeding the entire
Ameriya petrochemical complex and is
scheduled to run for at least 12 months-is
a source of pride. " A large part of the population
of the city of Alexandria works at
ETHYDCO, so at the same time that we provide
the power for the polyethylene plant to
make sure it remains operational, we are also
ensuring the security of local jobs, allowing
the company to grow, " Abusoufeh said. ■
-Sonal Patel is a POWER associate editor
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POWER September 2016

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