MHI has received an order from Portland General Electric Company (PGE), a regulated electric utility based in Portland, Oregon, to supply major equipment for PGE's Port Westward gas turbine combined-cycle (GTCC) power generation plant. The 400 MW Port Westward power plant is targeted to start commercial operations in May 2007 and is to be constructed at a site located approximately 120km north of Portland. The new plant will help PGE maintain an adequate margin in its electricity supply capability, especially as customers' future energy needs are forecasted to grow at 2.5 percent annually. MHI will supply one M501G gas turbine and one steam turbine, both to be manufactured at the company's Takasago Machinery Works. MHI won the order through Mitsubishi Power Systems, Inc. (MPS), a U.S. subsidiary. MPS will supply a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) through local procurement. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation will supply one generator. Detailed plant engineering work, procurement of the balance of plant equipment, equipment installation and plant commissioning will be separately consigned by PGE to a local engineering firm. PGE is a fully integrated electric utility that serves 755,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Oregon, and is the state's largest electric utility. PGE operates hydroelectric, gas turbine and coal-fired power plants having a collective generation capacity of more than 2,000 MW. The Port Westward plant, when completed, will be the most efficient PGE natural gas-fired power plant and the most efficient power plant of its type in the Pacific Northwest - as well as one of the most efficient of its type in the Western U.S. overall. Due to steeply rising natural gas prices, customers in the U.S. gas turbine market today are attaching increasing importance to higher power output and greater efficiency from the long-range perspective. Based on the successful operating records of its equipment previously delivered to the U.S. market, MHI now aims to build on the momentum of this latest order to further strengthen its marketing activities for the high-performance, thermally efficient G-type turbines in the coming years. |
