Remote Power Plant in Alaska Upgrades Water Treatment Solution
The GVEA Healy plant will require GE’s mobile water filtration system for approximately 90 days while work is being completed.
GE will commission a reverse osmosis (RO) mobile water filtration system at the Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA) coal-fired power plant in Healy, Alaska. The GE system will provide the plant with clean water during a planned outage to upgrade the plant’s water treatment system and environmental controls and facilitate the startup of Unit 2. The total power output of the facility once Unit 2 is online will be 80 megawatts. The two-unit station is located approximately 300 miles south of the Arctic Circle.
The GVEA Healy plant will require GE’s mobile water filtration system for approximately 90 days while work is being completed.
“Having access to clean water for our Healy plant is a crucial step in supporting our ongoing investment in upgrading our environmental controls and replacing older equipment to achieve a successful restart this coming summer,” said Lynn Thompson, vice president, power supply for GVEA. “This is an important, multimillion dollar project and GE’s partnership is key to maintaining uptime.”
The Healy power plant is located in the Alaskan Interior, which is an area known for harsh weather conditions and logistical challenges.
“We are pleased that GVEA selected GE’s RO mobile water solution, which will provide the Healy plant with clean water needed during this planned outage and upgrade period, ” said Yuvbir Singh, general manager, engineered systems—water and process technologies for GE Power & Water. “This project, located in Alaska’s Interior, further underscores GE’s capabilities to deliver emergency power and water solutions to even the most remote locations around the world.”
The mobile water treatment system includes a state-of-the-art trailer containing various filter vessels and a 100 gallon-per-minute RO unit. The product water from the RO system will be further purified by ion-exchange tanks to attain the quality necessary for boiler feedwater at the plant. To minimize replacement of the ion-exchange tanks, the RO system was upgraded to include an internal product water recycling system.
GVEA’s mission is to provide its member-owners with quality electric service, quality customer service and innovative energy solutions at fair and reasonable prices.The cooperative operates and maintains 3,177 miles of transmission and distribution lines and 34 substations. GVEA’s system is interconnected with Fort Wainwright, Eielson Air Force Base, Fort Greely, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and all electric utilities in the Alaska Railbelt, which extends from Homer to Fairbanks.