The new owners of a former aluminum plant wanted to utilize the facility and its existing steam turbines to sell electricity and desalinated water to a local utility. GE Energy was called on to evaluate and make recommendations on an equipment design model suitable to the customer’s needs.

The cost of producing electricity and water based on assumed fuel price was mapped to the expected operating profile. Following equipment evaluation, alternative configurations with detailed steam turbine cycle modeling was presented and discussed with the customer. Baseload, weighted average and partload cost of energy (COE) and cost of water (COW) tables were included for the proposed configuration(s).

The detailed COE and COW analyses were used by the customer to negotiate with the local power authority. A PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) was awarded to the customer to deliver power and water to the region. GE’s analysis and recommendations were also used as the basis for the reconfiguration design, as the customer modified and restarted the plant.