Power supply

Gas Turbines

North Pole Combined Cycle (NPCC) forced outage rate (FOR) for 2022 was 1.9%. Achieving low FOR’s like this are a direct result of a dedicated and skilled workforce.

Zehnder Unit 2’s load gear, which is responsible for reducing the turbine speed from 5100rpm to 3600rpm (synchronous speed) was completely overhauled in house with GVEA Power Supply employees.

Two of GVEA’s five 50,000-gallon diesel fuel tanks (turbine supply) were internally inspected and repaired.

Generator electrical testing performed on the Delta gas turbine generator.

Two new 125-volt battery banks and chargers were installed within GVEA’s plants. One installed by the in-house electrical group, the second installed by an external contract group.

Upgraded pressure safety valves (PSV) were installed on GVEA’s light straight run pressure vessel at NPCC. This project was carried out by in-house employees, an external petroleum engineer and an external mechanical engineer who specializes in pressure vessel construction and operation.

An emergency diesel generator was installed at the Delta Power Plant to improve its black start capability. This EDG generation was spec’d out by the electric and installed as a joint effort between the plant operator mechanics and plant electricians.

Safety handrails were installed on top of both Zehnder Frame 5 gas turbine packages. The addition of these handrails allows the operator mechanics to safely access the turbine package roofs without the need for fall protection.

Round three of four Machine Shop Training was completed for the Operator Mechanic group. The benefits of this training are twofold: First, it allows this department to continue to perform this major maintenance in-house, which significantly improves unit reliability and reduces costs. Second, it supports employee development, which is how great teams are built.

Healy Power Plant

Replaced service emergency lighting in both units, installed beam clamps in various spots of the plants to be used for additional fall protection and added anti-slip material to Unit 2 lube oil area. In 2022, 362 Safety work orders were completed.

Held a slips, trips and falls campaign and purchased additional safety equipment for employees. Since implementation, employees have taken ownership in the program and there have been 0 incidents to date.

Met EPA deadline of closing ash pond and reclamation of site.

Conducted a fish impingement study in collaboration with environmental.

After successful closure of the ash ponds, Healy management worked with environmental and engineering to design a long-term solution to handle and process bottom ash transport water being sluiced between Unit 1 and Unit 2.

Re-tuned fuel coal delivery, changing velocities through system which allowed plant to achieve 60 MW consistently (20% increase in capacity factor) as well as the units’ greatest MWH generation to date.

Dry Sorbet Injection System was installed on Unit 2. Increased overall plant safety, reliability and decrease overall potential for S02 violations.

Facility roof repairs were made that included iceguards to reduce safety hazards from ice sliding off facility.

Richard Storm of Innovative Combustion Technologies provided training to operators to increase pulverizer/boiler performance.

Ground was broken in the fall of 2022 on the Unit 1 SCR project. This included the removal of two decommissioned fuel tanks from the site of the SCR foundation area.

Assisted Board of Directors in Strategic Generation Plan. Healy staff worked in collaboration with various GVEA departments to generate two separate reports. One report identified shared systems between the units that would need to stay in service during the systematic retirement of Unit 2. A separate report was also generated, systematically identifying potential repurposing options for Unit 2.