New Orleans-based utility Entergy Louisiana is seeking approval from state regulators in early July to build a 112 MW natural gas floating power plant on a barge near an existing substation in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, which says it could burn up to 25% hydrogen, with modifications.
The estimated $411 million Bayou Power Plant, including transmission upgrades, will be designed and built by Grand Isle Shipyards on a fixed-price, fixed-schedule contract, with Bollinger Shipyards building the barge, Entergy said. It is expected to come online in the second half of 2028.
Entergy did not bid on the project because of its unique features, the company told the Louisiana Public Service Commission. “A formal request for proposals would not be in the public interest,” he said. “Given the need, location and type of resource … an RFP would not be necessary to identify the lowest reasonable cost alternative.”
Entergy asked the commission to make a decision within 120 days, but a spokesman said that outcome is unlikely.
The plant will include six Wartsila natural gas alternative internal combustion engines that can be started without power from the grid, known as “black start capability”, and will include a microgrid to provide service to the area if it runs out the power of the electrical network. on duty. The project also includes a transport interconnection and a substation extension.
The six engines, mounted on a barge deck, will be completely enclosed and weathertight, the utility said, with the barge and mooring system designed for a 100-year storm and capable of withstanding wind gusts of 178 mph and 18 feet. tidal wave
Building a floating power plant has advantages, Gary Dickens, Entergy’s vice president of capital projects, said in testimony. The cost to raise the existing ground or build the plant on a structure tall enough to allow similar surge protections “is cost prohibitive,” he said. The floating barge can rise and fall into place with the tide or storm waves. The power plant could also be moved to another location if needed, he said.
Entergy said the project will directly address the needs of critical fossil fuel infrastructure customers at Port Fourchon, which serves 90 percent of all deepwater oil and gas activity in the Gulf of Mexico and provides more than 18 % of US supply through its oil services and pumping infrastructure. . The area is currently served by a transmission line after two previous storms damaged another line that was then removed.
The area includes the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only deepwater oil import facility that is connected to 50 percent of U.S. oil refineries, Entergy said. He added that the project will add a resilient power source to the state grid and enable storm restoration options with quick ramp-up and ramp-down capabilities.
Entergy said it considered building additional transmission and substation improvements as an alternative. But he noted that the cost of the floating project was on par with other options considered, especially with the major challenges in building transmission through wetlands and open water in the area.
Floating power plants have been in use since the mid-1990s but are having a resurgence, said Hamed Hossain, who heads Siemens Energy’s floating power plant business that is building combined-cycle turbines on barges with a power that oscillates between 150 MW and 450 MW. .
According to the company, the power plants are equipped with efficient and low-emission technologies and can be installed on various types of floating devices such as simple barges, oil and gas platforms and floating production and offloading units.
With state regulators just beginning the review and approval process, a final decision by the timeline requested by Entergy is not likely, a commission spokesman said.
Several environmental and user interest groups have notified the commission that they will “intervene” at the filing to provide perspective on the project, including the Louisiana Power Users Group, the Alliance for ‘Affordable Energy and the Southern Renewable Association, but their comments have not been made. has been officially declared.
The Sierra Club told ENR it also plans to intervene, but declined to elaborate on its position. A date has not yet been set for the interveners to submit documents.
But in comments to an environmental advocacy publication, the Alliance’s executive director, Logan Burke, expressed concern that utilities’ reliance on fossil fuel technology will worsen climate change.
The online publication also noted that a $210 million gas plant with fast-start capability that was approved and built in 2020 by an Entergy subsidiary in New Orleans took nearly three days to operate after the ‘Hurricane Ida in 2021.
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