Kings Mountain Energy Center Operational

Officials from Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas joined with NTE Energy executives to mark the formal start of operations at a new combined cycle plant in North Carolina, USA.

The Kings Mountain Energy Center is designed to be of the cleanest and most efficient sources of capacity and energy in the Carolinas. It employs Mitsubishi’s GAC turbine technology in a combined-cycle configuration, recovering exhaust heat from the gas turbine to produce steam, which is then passed through a steam turbine to generate additional energy from the same initial fuel.

The Kings Mountain Energy Center incorporates a Mitsubishi 501GAC combustion turbine with a Toshiba steam turbine and a Vogt HRSG.

MHPS executives helped cut the ribbon on NTE Energy’s US$500 million Kings Mountain Energy Center (KMEC) located in Cleveland County, North Carolina, the 475 MW natural gas-fired plant will provide electricity to more than 400 000 homes using MHPS’s advanced-class gas turbine technology. Owned and operated by NTE Carolinas LLC, KMEC began operations three months after NTE Energy opened its Middletown (Ohio) Energy Center, which also incorporates MHPS technology.

“Together, NTE and MHPS are bringing a change in power to the United States,” said Paul Browning, president and CEO of MHPS Americas. “MHPS’s proven, advanced-class gas turbine technology is the perfect partner to North Carolina’s growing power resources.”

Browning said that the Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems G-Series gas turbine was the industry’s first advanced-class gas turbine. The global G-Series fleet has surpassed 4 million operating hours (equivalent to 500 years of operation) while achieving areliability of 99.2%.  MHPS manufactured the gas turbine for KMEC at Savannah Machinery Works (SMW), a manufacturing facility located in Savannah, Georgia.

KMEC also uses MHPS’s TOMONI artificial intelligence. “The use of AI allows for more flexible operation that complements renewable power,” Browning said, “and provides advanced analytics and machine learning that greatly reduce unplanned maintenance.”