Upgrades Provide Valuable Power Boost

APM Fossil West has taken huge strides into the future throughout 2016. The West team took on a few jobs in Oregon, California and Washington involving 7FA gas turbines this year, including six jobs performing Advanced Gas Path’s (AGP) and Dry Low NOx 2.6+ DLN2.6+ upgrades. The team performed these work scopes on four different units at Mountainview Power Plant, one at Coyote Springs Power Generation Facility and one at Goldendale Generating Station.  In a day and age where the importance of environmental conservation is stressed on a daily basis, these DLN2.6+ upgrades are becoming a more familiar sight on the jobsite.  These upgrades reduce NOx and CO emissions making the turbine a more environmentally friendly machine.  Superintendents Ernesto Anaya, Jacob Telep, Donald Jacobs and James Gehring were day Superintendents for the four units at Mountainview, and Dodd Chambers was the night Superintendent.  Ernie and Jacob took what they learned at Mountainview to the Coyote Spring sites. In addition, Ernie returned a few weeks later and performed a turn down valve upgrade.  Superintendent Donald Jacobs communicated the knowledge he acquired about DLN2.6+ to day Superintendent Arturo Diaz at the Goldendale site.  The Goldendale was a rotor-in MI with the AGP/DLN 2.6+/TD valve upgrades added to it. This gives the West region, six crews with experience of installing the new wave of upgrades to the 7F fleet.  It’s safe to say that APM is equipping itself with the tools and knowledge to keep up with the ever changing landscape of the turbine industry. The significance of these jobs should not be understated as these technologies allows the customer to boost the performance and efficiency of their existing power plants.  Thank you to all involved in making these jobs a powerful success.