Award recognizes Black & Veatch combination of advanced technology, EPC capability to address Northeast power demand
Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station named Industrial Project of the Year by Pennsylvania engineers
Black & Veatch’s work on a high-efficiency power generation station that uses the latest gas turbine and water-cooling technology to deliver clean power to more than 900,000 homes across the northeast U.S. has been awarded the Industrial Project of the Year by the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania.
The Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station is a 926-megawatt natural gas-fueled power plant located in Westmoreland County in Smithton, PA and owned by Tenaska Pennsylvania Partners. Black & Veatch provided engineering, procurement, and construction and startup (EPCS) services for the project. Black & Veatch Construction, Inc., a part of the Black & Veatch family of companies, began construction in 2016 and commercial operation was achieved in December of 2018, well ahead of schedule, addressing the region’s growing power demands while employing air-quality technology to meet state and federal emissions standards.
“Using advanced, high-efficiency turbine technology and a recycled water-cooling process, the Westmoreland project draws on our history of combining large-scale EPC capability with technology that delivers clean power,” said Todd Oppeau, Westmoreland Project Manager at Black & Veatch. “Power customers benefit from a reliable source of efficient energy, and we provided our client with a single point of contact across all phases of the project.”
The station is located near Pittsburgh and supplies electricity to customers in Pennsylvania and 12 other northeastern states that operate in the PJM market. PJM is a regional transmission organization (RTO) that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in the Northeast.
To maximize efficient water use during power generation, the plant recycles water through the cooling process multiple times. In addition, two new pipelines to deliver clean-burning natural gas to the plant are connected to existing regional pipelines. The facility is in the heart of the Marcellus and Utica gas shale fields; as a result it is expected that this local resource will be the primary fuel supply source. The project includes a 500Kv switchyard and switching station as well as 1.5 miles of power transmission lines to connect it to the PJM electric grid.
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