Romtec Utilities Pump Stations – Southern California Edison Gas-Fired Peaker Power Plants
| Industrial Lift Station |   |
| When the Public Utilities Commission mandated construction by summer ‘07 of five Southern California peaking power plants, commonly called “peakers,” the tight timeline meant that Southern California Edison (SCE) and its contractors had to be very efficient and innovative in choosing and installing components for the 45-megawatt plants. During project design, it was decided that plant process water would be pumped into local municipal sewers. Available space at each plant was critical. The solution was a self-contained, in-ground holding vessel, complete with pumps. It was determined that Romtec Utilities pump stations would work perfectly. “Our project was very much schedule driven, and Romtec’s pre-assembly and pre-engineering were very attractive to us,” says Stephen Marr, one of the four construction managers for WorleyParsons, the project design engineering firm (www.worleyparsons.com). “We thought it was a unique fit.” The Peakers The gas-fired turbine plants are brought online when power usage strains the ability of the electrical grid to meet power demand, typically “on days when it’s very, very hot or when there are outages of major power plants and we need to replace power in the grid,” explains WorleyParsons Project Manager Steven Blue. SCS put in the peaker plants located next to its existing electrical substations. Each SCE peaker is expected to run about 600 hours a year. The Pump Stations The peaker plants are on very small footprints with piping rather deep. Pump stations were needed to raise process water to the level of the local municipal sewer. “These pumping requirements were a very small part of the project,” Marr says, “so we really couldn’t spend the time and effort to site-build something. The pre-engineering aspect just worked out really well for us.” Each site has three Romtec pump stations. Process water goes through an oil-water separator then drains into the pump station wet well where it is pumped into the city’s sewer line. “It was a convenient way to carry the effluent into a holding area locally without having pipe that was lengthy and terribly involved,” Blue says. “It allowed us to reduce the piping system by quite a bit.” “Romtec gave us a piece of equipment that did exactly what we needed to have done, which is to hold the effluent wastewater and pump it out without having to buy a separate tank.” The Schedule The tight timeline made construction a challenge. “The permitting, engineering and procurement processes all started at the same time,” Blue says. “It was quite a daunting task.” The pre-engineered Romtec pump stations, with all components pre-tested and ready for installation, helped immensely with the time pressure. “All we had to do was drill a hole and drop it into the ground,” Blue says. “It was really plug and play.” Marr agrees. “We anticipated digging a hole in the ground and putting the product in it, and that’s what Romtec delivered. We achieved ground-breaking to power on the grid within four months,” he says with satisfaction of the construction of one of the five peaker plants.  Services included with every Romtec Utilities Pump/Lift StationFree pump/lift station sizing, pump performance curve, design proposal, quotation | |