Mitsubishi M501 GAC turbines to power $675m facility at Maryland

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) is developing a 1,000MW Wildcat Point generation facility in Cecil County, Maryland, US. This combined-cycle power plant is expected to deliver power to PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organisation (RTO).

Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) recently approved the natural gas-fired generation facility, and the $675m project is likely to be completed by early 2017. The plant is expected to generate sufficient electricity to provide for 390,000 homes a year. 

The new facility will be equipped with two Mitsubishi M501 GAC combustion turbine generators (CTs), two heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) and one steam turbine generator (STG). The M501 GAC gas turbines are being manufactured at MPSA's gas turbine facility in Savannah, Georgia.

Superheated steam

Each combustion turbine will include a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) equipped with duct burners with a rated capacity of 892 million British thermal units an hour (MMBtu/hr) each. 

The heat in the exhaust gas from the CTs will be recovered in the HRSGs and further heated by duct burners to produce steam. The HRSGs will produce superheated steam that will drive the 500MW steam turbine generator (STG) to produce additional electricity.

Emissions from the CT/HRSGs will be controlled using a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system for NOx and an oxidation catalyst system for CO and VOC emissions. The NOx emissions will also be controlled using dry Low NOx (DLN) combustors. 

The equipment will also include a natural gas-fired auxiliary boiler, an emergency generator, a fire water pump, and other ancillary power generation equipment.

The proposed combined-cycle power plant is named after a cliff located along the Susquehanna River, 3.5-miles (5.6km) west of the facility. The plant site is approximately five-miles (8km) west of the Town of Rising Sun, Maryland, and lies adjacent to ODEC's Rock Springs Generation Facility that houses two simple-cycle peaking generation units.