South Mississippi Electrical Cooperative Picks GE Turbines to Help Meet Growing Needs of its Members for Reliable Power
GE Energy’s gas turbine technology has been selected by South Mississippi Electric Power Association (SMEPA) to expand the capacity of its Moselle Generating Station near Hattiesburg, Miss. The project will add 150 megawatts of output, helping SMEPA meet the growing requirements of its cooperative members for reliable and efficient power with low emissions.
South Mississippi Electric, a generation and transmission cooperative, has been in business for more than 40 years and today provides wholesale electric power for more than 400,000 homes and businesses served by 11 member systems.
GE will supply two Frame 7EA gas turbines, technical advisory services and customer training for the Moselle project. With 780 units in service, the GE 7E/7EA gas turbine fleet has accumulated millions of hours of service while demonstrating high levels of reliability and availability.
“South Mississippi Electric sees a need to increase its supply of reliable, efficient power to meet the requirements of its member cooperatives,” said John Reinker, general manager of heavy duty and combined-cycle gas turbines for GE Energy. “With a proven track record spanning millions of hours of commercial service, GE 7EA gas turbines offer a reliable and efficient solution for meeting those growing energy needs.”
GE’s 7EA gas turbines are workhorses of the industry and have been used in a wide variety of power generation, industrial and cogeneration applications. The new machines for SMEPA will be installed behind boilers that currently provide steam for units 1 and 2 at the Moselle site. They will be equipped with GE’s dry low NOx combustion technology, restricting NOx emissions to 9 parts per million to help SMEPA meet the latest emissions standards.
When the new gas turbines are coupled with the existing steam turbines at the site, each of the new combined-cycle units will generate 134 megawatts and will be 30 percent more efficient than the existing Unit 1 and Unit 2 steam units.
It is expected that both of the new GE units will be commissioned by the spring of 2012.
About GE Energy
GE Energy (www.ge.com/energy) is one of the world’s leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies, with 2008 revenue of $29.3 billion. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, GE Energy works in all areas of the energy industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy; renewable resources such as water, wind, solar and biogas; and other alternative fuels. Numerous GE Energy products are certified under ecomagination, GE’s corporate-wide initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that will help customers meet pressing environmental challenges
