Aside from the din of continuing construction, things have been relatively quiet at the Emporia Energy Center during its first summer in operation.
“None of the units are running right now,” project manager Keith Ketcherside said earlier this week during a tour of the peaking plant located at Roads 200 and S.
The afternoon was cool, with high temperatures in the low 80s. The purpose of the plant is to provide additional power during periods of peak usage, such as on hot summer days.
“We haven’t been running as much the past couple weeks because it’s been so cool,” Ketcherside said. “We did run some a few days ago, when it got up into the 90s, but it’s cooled off since then.”
Westar Energy announced its plans to build the plant in August 2006, and construction began on March 12, 2007. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony took place this June, and at the time several of the units were already running. Altogether, the plant is projected to cost $333 million.
The initial phase of the center is now in operation, with one large F-class turbine that generates 155 megawatts and four smaller gas turbines that generate about 40 megawatts each.
“We generally run the bigger unit for testing and whenever it gets above 90 degrees,” Ketcherside said. “It’s got about 100 hours on it right now. It usually won’t come on until after lunch, in the hottest part of the day.”
The smaller turbines have run more than the industrial turbine, Ketcherside said.
“It’s based on how the load’s building. When it gets above 90 or 95 degrees the load builds fast. We’ll typically run the smaller units anywhere from 10 a.m. until noon and 6 or 7 until 9 at night.” The smaller turbines have about 400 hours of operation time each.
Construction continues on the two final turbines. Ketcherside expects most of the mechanical work to be finished sometime in November. System testing will begin at the end of February, and the plant is scheduled to be fully operational sometime next spring. When completed, the plant will generate a total of 600 megawatts.
“All in all, things have been running smoothly,” Ketcherside said.
Plant manager Larry Graves agreed.
“We look forward to having the Emporia Energy Center fully operational. It is a bright, well thought-out addition to Westar.”