GE’s Power Generation Services business has signed a multiyear services agreement with Southern California Edison (SCE) to upgrade the utility’s Mountainview Generating Facility, a 1,054-megawatt (MW) combined-cycle power plant in Redlands, California.
The Mountainview upgrade project reflects a broader commitment by SCE and other California utilities to curtail their water consumption to help the state battle chronic drought conditions.
Highlighting a growing trend with North American combined-cycle power stations, the upgrade project will reduce the facility’s startup times, lower its emissions without using additional water and help to balance the growing role of renewables on the grid.
“Our Mountainview station will be much more flexible, enabling it to more quickly respond to the needs of the California ISO system that is highly penetrated with solar power and other renewable sources,” said Stuart Hemphill, senior vice president at Southern California Edison.
GE’s technologies will boost the station’s output by about 48 MW, increase its efficiency and offer longer intervals between maintenance outages. By boosting Mountainview’s flexibility, the project will help SCE protect the grid from the intermittency of the state’s rapidly expanding renewable energy supplies while strengthening the facility’s competitive position in California.