Municipal Light & Power sets new standard: George M. Sullivan Power Plant 2A expansion project shines.

• Author: Slaten, Russ
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Energy & Power

Anchorage Municipal Light and Power (ML&P) is poised to commission into operation one of the most energy efficient thermal generation power plants in the world. The brand new 120 megawatt power plant sits next to the George M. Sullivan Power Plant 2, built in the 70s, in East Anchorage. The combined-cycle generation plant is known as the Plant 2A expansion project.

Power generation in Alaska is unlike much of the Lower 48 in that the utilities are landlocked. Although utilities along the Railbelt can provide each other with electricity when necessary, ML&P cannot get power at the same capacity as utilities in the Lower 48, former ML&P General Manager and COO Jim Trent says. The George M. Sullivan Plant 2A expansion project allows ML&P to provide for itself and its customers.

"Every one of my thirty-one thousand customers out there has the expectation that whenever they turn on the switch, the light should come on, and we foster that belief, so we work hard to make sure we have redundant power," Trent says.

Combined-Cycle Efficiencies

ML&P's goal to bring online its flagship power plant will not only provide energy needs to its Anchorage customer base, it will be the most cost effective and energy efficient plant in Alaska. Plant 2A will assist in heating the city's water supply while significantly reducing natural gas use and emissions, says Eugene Ori, ML&P's project manager assigned to the expansion project.

"With the new plant coming online we're going to reduce nitrogen oxide pollution by 97 percent less emissions, and 80 percent less carbon monoxide emissions, and about 30 percent less carbon dioxide emissions. We did a rough calculation and that's like taking approximately one hundred thousand cars off the road," Ori says.

The main reason for the increased efficiency and lowered pollution is the technology. The natural gas burning turbine is a variant of an aircraft engine that powers the Boeing 747-400 and 767, except it's in a configuration to make electricity, not thrust through the air, Ori says.

Beyond the gas-fired turbine generator, combined-cycle facilities like this only see natural gas as the beginning of the power generation cycle, Ori says. The gas turbine produces part of the plant's power, so instead of sending the hot exhaust gases out into the atmosphere as would happen in simple cycle generation, the heat exhaust from the gas turbine is used to heat water, turning it into steam. The steam then powers a steam turbine...