POWER September 2016 - 40

TOP PLANTS
Valley Power Plant, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin
Owner/operator: We Energies
Courtesy: We Energies
Converting a boiler's fuel source from coal to natural gas involves a lot of planning
and reengineering. When the plant is the sole steam service supplier to a downtown
metropolitan area, it also involves a rigid schedule. The Valley Power Plant overcame
several challenges to successfully complete one such conversion.
Aaron Larson
T
he Valley Power Plant has been playing
a vital role for the City of Milwaukee
since 1968. The plant has not only
been generating electricity and providing
voltage support for the downtown area since
then, but it has also been supplying steam to
a 1.8-square-mile network. Steam from the
plant heats Milwaukee businesses, schools,
hospitals, entertainment venues, condominiums,
and more. Customers also rely on Valley's
steam for water heating, laundry, sterilization
processes, and food processing.
But times are much different today than
they were 50 years ago when the plant was
conceived. Originally fueled by coal, the
plant's future was uncertain with more stringent
environmental regulations on the horizon.
Additional air quality controls would be
costly, so a conversion to natural gas became
an attractive alternative.
We Energies-owner of the Valley Power
Plant-filed applications with the Wisconsin
Public Service Commission (PSC) in April
2013 to convert the plant's fuel source from
coal to natural gas. The PSC approved the
change in March 2014.
Timing Was Critical
The Valley Power Plant is the only cogeneration
facility providing district heating steam
to the City of Milwaukee. Paul Haubert, major
projects manager for We Energies, said
40
the plant's priority is to first meet steam demand
and then provide voltage support and
electrical generation. If the plant goes offline,
there is no steam supply backup, which can
be a very serious problem.
The plant consists of two distinct power
group units, each consisting of two 640,000lb/hr
natural circulation boilers feeding a
140-MW steam turbine generator (STG) set.
The original design included many redundant
systems to reduce the likelihood of a complete
loss of steam service. Steam can be exported
via either extraction from the STG or
directly from the boiler, using a pressure and
temperature reducing system.
We Energies selected AECOM (which at
the time was known as URS) to handle the
conversion project's engineering, procurement,
construction, and startup (Table 1). The plant's
unique role as a steam source for the metropolitan
area meant that the construction schedule
and unit downtime for equipment tie-ins needed
to follow strict planned outage schedules.
The gas conversion project was planned to
Table 1. Primary vendors involved in the Valley Power Plant conversion
project. Source: AECOM
Company
AECOM
Brand Energy and Infrastructure Services
Coen
Emerson Process Management
Environmental Systems Corp.
HDR Inc.
Hunzinger Construction Co.
Riley Power Inc.
Sirois Engineering and Consulting
Sprinkmann Sons Corp.
Van Ert Electric Co.
We Energies
www.powermag.com
Project responsibility
Engineering, procurement, construction, and startup
Scaffolding
Gas burner supplier
Distributed control system
Emissions monitoring equipment
Financial analysis
Civil work and concrete
Original boiler manufacturer
Flue gas flow analysis
Insulation
Electrical
Plant owner and operator
POWER | September 2016
http://www.powermag.com
POWER September 2016

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