GE’s Distributed Power business and Clarke Energy, GE’s authorized Channel Partner of Jenbacher gas engines in Michigan, will provide a turnkey combined heat and power (CHP) plant to municipal electricity utility Sebewaing Light & Water (SL&W), US.
Image: GE, Clarke Energy to provide turnkey CHP plant to electricity utility in US. Photo courtesy of General Electric.
The CHP plant, funded by a public bond, will augment SL&W’s power plant assets with GE’s natural gas-fueled Jenbacher gas engines, reducing electricity costs for customers in Sebewaing.
Clarke Energy will provide a long-term service agreement with associated availability guarantees.
The project will feature a Jenbacher J624 gas engine and a J620 gas engine, which will provide 4.4MWe of electricity and 3.3MWe, respectively, with a total output of 7.7MWe.
Clarke Energy will also install GE’s Distributed Power’s Industrial IoT solution, myPlant Asset Performance Management (APM), which allows customers to improve the availability, reliability, operating performance and maintenance effectiveness of the gas engines.
Along with turnkey project management, installation, integration and commissioning, Clarke Energy will also provide a customized, pre-fabricated and modular enclosure solution for the gensets.
Grid electricity produced from aging coal plants in Michigan will be replaced by high-efficiency natural gas combustion in reciprocating internal combustion engine technology, which will reduce carbon dioxide emission by nearly 15,000 tons per year.
Carbon savings can also be achieved as the equipment will be operated in CHP mode, which utilizes waste heat from the gensets to offset natural gas burned in a boiler for industrial process steam or hot water.
Furthermore, heat recovered from the cooling water circuits, lube oil circuit, intercooler and exhaust gases will be able to provide 10.45 million British thermal units per hour in the form of low-temperature hot water at 224 degrees Fahrenheit.
While the Jenbacher gas engines have been manufactured at the company’s production facility in Jenbach, Austria, pre-fabricated enclosure is being manufactured in Wisconsin. The enclosure will be installed prior to shipment to the site in the fourth quarter of 2018.
The site is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2019.