Fluor Corporation announced January 7 that the 800-megawatt (MW) Unit 1 and all common facilities of the two-unit complex at Luminant's new supercritical Oak Grove Power Plant in Robertson County, Texas, are now online having recently achieved substantial completion in December 2009. In reaching this major milestone, Unit 1 passed the required performance and emissions compliance tests. Unit 2 is scheduled for completion in mid-2010.
“As the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for Luminant’s Oak Grove complex, we are pleased that the first of the two units is now substantially complete,” said Dave Dunning, president of Fluor’s Power Group. “This accomplishment, to align with our long-time client on an aggressive 30-month schedule, was supported by a tremendous engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning effort while accentuating focus on health, safety & environmental (HSE) excellence in all phases of our project execution.”
“Achieving this critical step signals the end of construction and the beginning of Luminant's operation of another significant source of base load generation for Texas,” said Mike Williams, chief fossil officer, Luminant. “Our operations team is fully engaged in the day-to-day management of the unit, which will generate needed electricity to help meet Texas’ growing power demands.”
At the height of the project, site-based personnel employed by Fluor peaked at nearly 2,400 workers. Oak Grove Units 1 and 2, when complete, will have lower emission rates than any existing lignite plant in Texas and are expected to be at least 70 percent lower than the average coal plant in the U.S. The two units will be capable of generating 1,600 MW, enough to power nearly 850,000 Texas homes.
In addition to environmental control equipment that will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, Oak Grove is also the nation's first pulverized coal plant fueled by lignite to utilize new activated carbon sorbent injection technology to remove mercury.
For more than 25 years, Fluor has provided ongoing engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services to Luminant, and its former company, TXU. During this time, Fluor employees have worked more than 50 million hours across numerous Luminant sites throughout Texas.