Chihuahua Combined Cycle Power Plant Begins Commercial Operation in Mexico |
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The Chihuahua Combined Cycle Power Plant, which distributes
434.65 MW to Chihuahua State, Mexico, was successfully handed over to Comision
Federal de Electricidad (CFE), Mexico's national electric utility, on May 8, 2001.
The population of this state is about three million, and the new plant helps realize
a stable electric supply for the region.
  In
Mexico, this power plant is the first combined cycle which is delivered on schedule
and achieved better performance than the guaranteed value among application of
"F generation" Gas turbine. MHI has a dynamic history in Mexico in the
fields of conventional and geothermal plants. The addition of this highly successful
full turnkey plant project, featuring the technologically complex F Generation
Gas Turbine, is truly a milestone demonstrating high potential for future activities
in this country.
Mexican President Vicente Fox
and CFE General Director Alfredo Elias Ayub attended the opening ceremony on May
24 to celebrate its operation.
The plant is located in the
highlands of Chihuahua, 1,480 m above sea level. Its designed capacity is 434.65
MW at atmospheric temperature 22°C. The facility comprises two M501F gas turbine
generators installed indoors, which are able to burn dual fuels, natural gas and
diesel oil with DLN (Dry Low NOx) combustors. The triple-pressure heat recovery
steam generators (HRSGs) are of the reheat type with natural circulation designs.
The plant is a 2-on-1 configuration with two gas turbines connected to their respective
HRSGs, and with the steam from both HRSGs supplyed to a steam turbine. An Air
Cooled Condenser (ACC) has been provided as the cooling system of the turbine
exhaust steam flow, owing to the insufficient cooling water supply on-site.
The gas turbine operations
are monitored by MHI in Japan using the Remote Monitoring System to ensure proper
operation and to maintain the higher availability of the units. Evaporative cooler
systems are available to provide cooling of inlet air, thereby improving the plant's
power output, especially in the summer months.
MHI hopes that this successful
plant will greatly contribute to the steady growth of economy in Mexico, and help
MHI expand its market share in that country.
Plant Outline
| Plant Power Output (net) |
434.65 MW |
| Fuel |
Natural gas and diesel oil |
| Gas Turbine |
M501F 143.58 MW x 2 |
| HRSG |
Horizontal gas flow, triple pressure,
natural circulation and outdoor type |
| Steam Turbine |
TC2F-29.5 159.72 MW x 1 |
| Cooling System |
Air Cooled Condenser 30 Cells |
| DCS |
DIASYS |
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