Power Plant - 3 MW

Client: AMOCO
Areas of Specialization: Power
Commissioning: Electrical, Instrumentation/Controls, Mechanical

The Willamar Field in Willacy County, Texas is a 50 mile radius natural gas production field.  Hundreds of electrically driven pump jacks are used to recover natural gas.  The pump jacks connect to a pipeline system that carries the gas to a central compressor station.  AMOCO desired to generate its own electricity with natural gas engine driven generators, but it needed to acquire an existing 12.47kV power distribution system from Central Power and Light Co. to make the project feasible.  AMOCO retained Bath Engineering Corporation to provide design and construction management services to build the generation station and connect it to the distribution system.  Bath's design included three each one megawatt McKenzie natural gas engines with 2.4 kV KATO generators, a building to house the generators, foundations for the building and equipment, a fuel piping system, a cooling system, a ventilation system, civil site work, the substation tie-in to the distribution system, and 5kV and 15kV switchgear and controls.