Cape Canaveral Next Generation Clean Energy Center
Owned and operated by Florida Power & Light (FPL)
1200 MW, 3 × 1 combined cycle powered by Siemens SGT6-8000H gas turbines, located in Brevard County, Fla
Plant manager: Chris Mabou
Challenge. In Florida, the supply of natural gas through pipelines can be limited during severe weather events, such as hurricanes. Thus, it is imperative that powerplants in the state have the ability to start and operate on alternative fuels—such as oil. FPL owns and operates three 3 × 1 H-class combined-cycle plants in Florida and was experiencing lower starting reliability on fuel oil compared to natural gas.
Solution. Plant’s approach was to initiate ignition on a small amount of natural gas and then switch to fuel oil early in the ramp-up sequence. At the time this entry was submitted, FPL’s advanced-gas-turbine plants were being equipped with dedicated natural-gas storage tanks to assist in fuel-oil startup. Bear in mind that, in addition to the storage tanks, additional valves and piping, and logic modifications, also were needed to connect to the existing system.
Results. The solution described had been implemented on five gas turbines—including the three at Cape Canaveral—at the time this entry was submitted to CCJ and had demonstrated multiple successful starts. More specifically, reliability on fuel-oil starts improved to greater than 95% on some units since January 2023. Fleet average reliability was greater than 81% and expected to improve when all units are implemented.
Project participants:
Chris Mabou, plant manager
Tobias Augsten, principal engineer, FPL gas-turbine fleet team
