GE supplies Frame 7FA gas turbine generators for Ferguson Replacement Project

General Electric (GE) will supply Fluor Corporation with two Frame 7FA Gas Turbine-Generators for the Ferguson Replacement Project, a 540 MW combined-cycle power plant near Marble Falls, Texas. The new Ferguson CCGT power plant will be replacing the, 37-year-old Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant (420 MW) at the site. Start of commercial operation of the plant is scheduled for summer 2014, GE said today.

Once operational, the Ferguson plant will be the first combined-cycle power plant in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas region that meets the latest Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Greenhouse Gas regulations.

“This new, advanced technology combined-cycle power plant will use significantly less fuel than the gas-fired plant it is replacing,” said Michael McCluskey, manager of LCRA Generation Resource Development.

Fluor Corporation, the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the Ferguson Replacement Project, ordered delivery of two Frame 7FA Gas Turbine-Generators in a two-on-one combined-cycle plant. GE will manufacture the turbines in Greenville, S.C., the generators in Schenectady, N.Y., and develop the control system in Salem, Va.

The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), a public utility, will own and operate the new 540 MW Ferguson combined-cycle power plant.

GE is keen to roll out its advanced 7FA Gas Turbine technology across the U.S. “There are many opportunities in the U.S. today similar to the LCRA project to replace older plants, both gas-fired and coal-fired,” Paul Browning, president and CEO, Thermal Products for GE Energy said.