Tampa Electric Company South Tampa Resiliency
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Merit Award
Sent by: Construction Sundt
Owner: Tampa Electric Co.
Main design company: Sargent and Lundy
General contractor: Construction Sundt
Civil contractor: Moretrench Industrial
Four Wärtsilä reciprocating engines producing a combined 72 MW now form a microgrid for south Tampa that will keep the power going. The plant occupies less than 2 hectares on an Air Force base, where the footprint made cross-discipline sequencing a daily challenge. But after two back-to-back hurricanes hit Tampa in 2024, storm surge put parts of MacDill Air Force Base under 4 feet of salt water, including the project’s rest area. Equipment skids damaged by salt water for two of the four engine units. The team reconfigured the schedule around the contractor’s on-site manufacturing capabilities, manufacturing and replacing components in-house to mitigate delays.
The work was sequenced to allow the disciplines ample time and space to work on a daily basis. Navisworks federated models carried the process piping and steel structure along with OEM equipment, electrical conduit and cable tray, helping with clearances while digital workstations allow teams to access models and drawings in situ. The engine foundations were placed 1/16-in. tolerance between motherboards, which requires significant advance planning. Crews also pulled and completed about 250,000 linear feet of cable without an output failure.
