ABB will supply Robins & Morton, the Alabama-based construction and engineering company, a plant automation system for Louisiana Energy and Power Authority's (LEPA) new gas-fired power plant in Morgan City, Louisiana.
The plant will produce 64 megawatts of electric power for six of the 17 municipalities in southern Louisiana that own LEPA. Scheduled for completion in late 2015, the plant will supply competitively priced electricity that will reduce the municipalities' reliance on more costly supply options. This will be LEPA's first power generation facility, and one of several new power plants currently under construction in the United States that are fueled by natural gas extracted from shale formations (also known as shale gas).
It is also in line with the current trend of generating power through smaller, distributed power generation plants which are located closer to the demand like municipalities, end-users.
ABB was selected by Robins & Morton for its ability to provide speedy and responsive consultancy during the bidding process, and to deliver on a fast-track basis a complete plant automation solution that is cost effective and low risk during project execution and that meets the end-user's requirements.
ABB is supplying a Symphony® Plus total plant automation system that will control, manage and optimize the entire production process at the Morgan City plant. The solution includes a wide variety of Symphony Plus products including plant performance monitoring, vibration monitoring, simulation and ABB's new SD Series of robust, energy-efficient input/output (I/O) modules.
ABB is also responsible for design, engineering, installation and commissioning of the automation system, and will provide LEPA with operator and engineer training and life cycle service support. ABB was also awarded two separate contracts to supply plant electrical equipment.
"We are delighted to be working with Robins & Morton on this, our first project together in the United States," says Massimo Danieli, Managing Director of ABB's Power Generation business, a part of the company's Power Systems division. "Our vast experience of providing electrical and automation systems for gas-fired power plants in North America makes ABB the ideal partner for power plant projects fueled by natural gas."
ABB has developed standardized / containerized solutions for distributed power supporting fast track execution with low risk profile.
Thanks to the recent boom in shale gas production, natural gas has become the predominant fuel for new power plant projects in the United States. More than half of new power generation plants built in the United States in 2013 were fueled by natural gas. ABB has a huge installed base of automation systems in combined cycle and open cycle gas-fired power plants all over North America.
Symphony Plus is ABB's automation platform for the power generation and water industries. It is designed to meet the requirements of engineering, procurement and construction contractors in the power and water sectors, and of plant owners in all geographic markets and in all types of power generation and water treatment. There are now more than 6,500 Symphony DCS installations in operation all over the world, with more than 4,500 in power and water applications.
