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Power enough for whole valley Mail Tribune / Jim Craven The $308 million steel Klamath cogeneration plant, which is scheduled to go online in July, is owned by the city of Klamath Falls, with the power brokered by PacifiCorp Power Marketing. It�s one of four natural gas plants being built in the Northwest power pool region. Gas-fired plant will bring new energy source to a region that sorely needs it By Melissa Martin KLAMATH FALLS � From a distance, the strange beast rising out of the sagebrush looks like a cargo ship docked at port. But up close, what looks silent is crawling with activity, some 760 people � welders, pipefitters, electricians, crane operators, sheetrock workers, iron workers, boiler makers, laborers, cement masons, carpenters and computer programmers. This micro-city on a sagebrush hill is the Klamath Cogeneration plant, one of the newest power plants in the Pacific Northwest. When it fires up in July, it will be capable of producing 500 megawatts, enough energy to light the whole Rogue Valley. It will employ 20 people. Fueled by natural gas flowing from the Canadian Rockies, the power plant will produce steam for a plywood mill, as well as electricity for the power grid that supplies the western United States. Customers that have already signed up for its energy include Seattle City Light and Modesto (Calif.) Irrigation District. "We�re going to be one of the lowest-emitting power plants in the world," said site manager Bill Byrnes. "Our emissions will be cleaner than the air you breathe." $308 million giant The $308 million steel giant is a merchant plant, owned by the city of Klamath Falls, with the power brokered by PacifiCorp Power Marketing, a subsidiary of PacifiCorp. It�s one of four natural gas plants being built in the Northwest power pool region, where winter energy shortages have reached an acute level. It takes three ingredients to cook up a power plant � fuel, transportation and water � and Klamath Cogeneration has all three, said Byrnes, who has built power plants in Alaska, Nevada, California, Delaware and Maine. "Our fuel system is the natural gas pipeline right outside our door," Byrnes said. "The transportation system is the BPA transmission lines that run along the corridor and � because the river and lake here are sacred ground � we�re using reclaimed water from the sewer system in Klamath Falls as our cooling water." Shortage solution The Klamath Cogeneration plant can contribute about 480 megawatts daily to the regional power grid, which sustains a load of about 70,000 megawatts. Natural-gas-fired plants are also being built near Yuba City and Bakersfield in California and in Northern Idaho, adding a total of 2,250 megawatts to the system, said Jim Harlan of PacifiCorp Power Marketing in Portland. "The market shortage varies seasonally, and it�s particularly acute right now," Harlan said. "If you�ve got a shortage, a little supply can do a lot to alleviate price run ups." Recent rapid increases in wholesale power costs, couple with increased demand, have led to a brewing energy crisis, particularly in California. New energy sources such as the Klamath Cogeneration plant "provide a source of electricity within the region and eliminates the need to import electricity from other areas," said Gene Gorzelnik, spokesman for the North American Electric Reliability Council in Princeton, New Jersey. One fuel, two products Here�s how the Klamath Cogeneration plant works: Natural gas fires two combustion turbines that are 10 times bigger than a jet engine. The turbines produce electricity for the grid, but they also produce waste heat at 1,150 degrees Fahrenheit. The exhaust is captured and transferred to heat recovery steam generators, similar to boilers. Encased in 130-foot-high towers, the boilers are the plant�s most visible side from Highway 97. The boilers produce steam, which drives an additional generator. Part of the steam � up to 275,000 pounds per hour � is sent to Collins Forest Products to use in the production process for fiberboard, siding and plywood. The steam is powerful enough to cut like a laser. The steam turbine is cooled by up to 3.2 million gallons of water from the city�s waste water treatment plant. The massive turbines dwarf a person standing by them. But the cost is big too: $27 million each when they were ordered for the Klamath project. In today�s market, the generators would fetch $37 million because manufacturers can�t keep up with orders for new power plants. Byrnes traveled to Canada and Germany to watch the assembly of the turbines. "I wanted to monitor the assembly because I used to build these for General Electric,�� said Byrnes, a former executive of Alaska�s largest electric company. The Klamath Cogeneration project is a city of wires, 15.5 miles of conduit buried beneath the ground and 127 miles of wire and cable and 11 miles of pipe inside the building. The brains of this 24-hour plant is in the computer control room, Byrnes said. With a click of the mouse, plant technicians can isolate any problem, pinpointing the exact pipe, cable or wire and instantly relaying the information to the maintenance crew. Economics 101 "It�s an economic plus for the community," said Jim Keller, the retired Klamath Falls city administrator whose 15-year efforts brought a power plant here. Originally, the city proposed a hydropower project called Salt Caves on the Klamath River. The city of Klamath Falls expects to pay off the 20-year construction bonds early and still net $3 million in annual profits, said Mayor Todd Kellstrom. Although natural gas prices dramatically increased this month, the city anticipates its electricity sales to be higher than fuel costs. "The shortage of power we�ve experienced this past week has caused the price of electricity to skyrocket," Kellstrom said. It�s Economics 101, said Harlan of PacifiCorp Power Marketing. New or upgraded natural-gas-fired plants are more efficient, use less fuel and cause demand to drop, which leads to lower prices. "If you replaced all the current, older gas projects with Klamath Falls type projects, you�d probably see a 30 to 40 percent drop in the demand for natural gas, everything else being equal," Harlan said. The Klamath Cogeneration plant is 62 percent efficient, compared to older plants that run 35 percent. Fuel efficiency Converting natural gas to electricity, however, is not necessarily the most efficient use of the fuel. A natural gas furnace heating a home runs at 90 percent efficiency, according to Steve Vincent, government relations representative of Avista Corp. The simple solution appears to be converting every home or business to natural gas. But the reality is that parts of Oregon don�t have access to pipelines and electricity use continues to rise. Nationally, demand is expected to increase by 60,500 megawatts by 2004, according to a report by the North American Electric Reliability Council. "In the Northwest and across the United States, we need new generation now," Vincent said. It can�t come in the form of new hydro or nuclear power because of environmental concerns and renewable energy such as wind or solar power is still in experimental stages. "Right now, the quickest way to get new generation is to build a gas-fired plant," Vincent said. But the future may hold new sources of energy, he said, such as fuel cells, an area of research that�s gaining more attention. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4476, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.