The BEC delivers power through a dedicated 6.5 mile long underwater transmission cable to the Consolidated Edison Gowanus substation in Brooklyn to meet the electricity needs of over 500,000 homes and businesses in New York City.
With aero-derivative technology, the flexible BEC plant can produce full power from a standing start in less than ten minutes of receiving a request from the power distributor, helping to ensure grid stability in New York City.
The delivery of two Industrial Trent 60 Wet Low Emission (WLE) gas turbines and two generators expands Siemens’ existing support for the BEC plant. BEC previously purchased eight Industrial Trent 60 gas turbines in 2009. Additionally, Siemens has also contributed a significant amount of capital to fund the project’s construction since 2010 and is the largest lender in the current loan.
As part of this order, Siemens has been awarded an extension to its current long-term service contract for the eight existing Industrial Trent 60 gas turbines, generators and auxiliary packages. A long-term agreement is also in place for the two new units following installation and commissioning.
“These highly flexible gas turbines are designed to ramp up quickly to help meet peak power demand in one of the world’s largest cities,” said John Gibson, Head of Sales North America, Siemens. “As a technology partner, Siemens has power infrastructure installed throughout New York City, from generation to transmission and distribution. We are very pleased to deliver additional world-class technology to the Bayonne Energy Center that will help meet the electricity needs of New Yorkers. Our expert Siemens service technicians will continue to ensure that the units perform at maximum output for many years to come.”
With the addition of these new units – two Industrial Trent 60 gas turbines and two SGen-100A generators – the facility’s power output will be increased to 640 MW. Features of the BEC include the ability for multiple starts and stops per day, high availability and starting reliability, best in class efficiency levels and best achievable emissions performance.
The existing service and maintenance partnership between BEC and Siemens includes joint workshops and the development of a cross-organizational team to deliver high reliability. The entire Siemens platform team has worked closely with BEC to continuously improve overall plant performance. This collaboration has resulted in highly successful performance. For example, during the summer peak operating period in 2015, which saw BEC start the units over 1,000 times (operating over 5,500 hours) the facility achieved a world-class reliability rate of >99.76%.
Capital support from Siemens Financial Services division (SFS) has played a key role since the project’s initial construction phase in 2010. Overall, SFS has participated in 3 separate loans in support of the project over the years. Initially, as sole lender, SFS provided a $50 million holding company loan to the prior owner, which was important to funding the project’s construction. In June 2014, SFS contributed $58 million towards a new project loan – making Siemens the largest single lender in that financing structure. In June 2015, SFS funded $60 million of the new $275 million project loan – again, making SFS the largest lender in the current loan.
The Industrial Trent 60 gas turbine packages are being assembled at Siemens’ Mount Vernon, Ohio facility.
