Wood Group GTS has signed a four-year operations and maintenance (O&M) contract with Entegra Power Group and Sundevil Power Holdings to operate the Gila River Power Station, one of the largest independent power plants in the U.S. Located near Phoenix, the station has eight GE Frame 7FA gas turbines, eight heat recovery steam generators and is capable of producing 2,200 MW of electrical power.
Wood Group GTS currently provides gas turbine upgrades, repairs and outage services to the facility and also recently secured a major maintenance inspection contract for two gas turbines and one steam generator at the site.
The Gila River Power Station was an early adopter of Wood Group GTS’ ECOMAX® system, an automated gas turbine tuning technology that enables the operator to optimize gas turbine combustor and overall gas turbine performance on a real-time basis. Currently, ECOMAX is installed on six of the gas turbines, and the new agreement includes a provision to install ECOMAX on the other two units. Following the installation of the initial six ECOMAX systems, power output at the station increased 1.5 – 2.0 per cent, while heat rate decreased by up to 0.25 per cent.
“We focus on life-cycle value for our customers, not just efficient daily operations and management of power plants like Gila River,” said Frank Avery of Wood Group GTS. “Using our O&M experience, engineering experience and unique technology we identified ways to increase the overall plant performance through increased output and efficiency as part of the services we offer. WG GTS’ services have been specifically engineered to deliver this level of value for all our customers.”