The Grand River Dam Authority has dedicated Unit 3 at its Grand River Energy Center in Oklahoma, a 505 MW combined cycle power plant equipped with a Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) M501J advanced class gas turbine.
It is the first J-Series turbine produced at the MHPS Savannah Machinery Works and the first to be operational in the Americas.
“This capital investment further diversifies GRDA‘s power generation options and ensures we remain a primary, reliable source of electricity for our current and future customers,” GRDA Chairman of the Board Joe Vandevier said. “With this new unit, GRDA can now capitalize on one of our greatest assets in natural gas and further increase the return investment to Oklahoma.”
“The Grand River Dam Authority asked us to provide the people of Oklahoma the most efficient and reliable power plant available,” said Paul Browning, President and CEO of MHPS Americas. “We’re proud to announce that the first J-Series in the Americas beat our performance guarantee and achieved 62 percent combined cycle efficiency. GRDA now owns the first 60 hertz combined cycle power plant in the world to make this claim.”
The MHPS turbine was delivered on time to the site, achieved first fire on March 14, in its first attempt, and two days later synchronized to the grid to first produce electricity for GRDA and Southwest Power Pool customers.
The commissioning team achieved this contract milestone 35 days of ahead of the June 1st contract deadline. During the startup process, the M501J turbine exceeded its performance guarantee and GRDA was able to sell power to the grid ahead of schedule.
The MHPS combustion turbine installed at the Grand River Energy Center is paired in combined cycle with an MHPS steam turbine. Both units also feature generators from Mitsubishi Electric Company. As part of the project, GRDA signed a 25-year long term service agreement with MHPS that included MHPS-TOMONI digital solutions. This is the J-Class gas turbine enabled with MHPS-TOMONI features, supporting power generation assets, optimizing O&M, providing flexible operations, and improving reliability.
“It has been my privilege to work with the technology team that GRDA assembled to create Unit 3 at the Grand River Energy Center,” said Charles Barney, executive vice president, GRDA. “These partners all shared our vision to set a new standard for efficiency and reliability. Each partner contributed their best engineers and constructors, and I congratulate them on their exceptional accomplishment. This ultra-efficient electric generator is now integrated with our hydro and wind generation, and will help assure that GRDA customers have low-cost, clean and reliable electricity for many decades.”
