Siemens to Supply Turbines for Power Plant Project in Michigan

ERLANGEN, Germany (Feb. 24, 2015) – Siemens is supplying two gas turbines and one steam turbine for the Holland Energy Park combined cycle power plant in Holland, Michigan. The plant will generate approximately 125 megawatt (MW) in summer and 145 MW in winter. The local municipal utility, Holland Board of Public Works (HBPW), is replacing a coal-fired plant with a new fuel efficient modern power plant. With the new Siemens technology the CO2-emissions at the site will be reduced by approximately 50 percent. A special feature of this plant is the use of surplus heat from the circulating water system for use in expanding a downtown snowmelt system. Commercial operation of the plant is scheduled for fall 2016.

The Holland Energy Park power plant will be built in the City of Holland, which is located in the lower western region of Michigan. Siemens’ scope of supply includes two SGT-800 gas turbines and one SST-400 steam turbine. Siemens will also provide a long-term service contract for the SGT-800 gas turbines. The new plant’s cogeneration capabilities provide it with an extremely high fuel efficiency level. The City of Holland maintains the largest municipally-owned snowmelt system in the United States; the underground pipe system spans roughly 46,000 square meters of city roads and sidewalks. In the cold weather months from October until April, Michigan has about 32 days average total snowfall, with up to 177 centimeters per year. Circulating water from the Holland Energy Park plant will be run through a heat exchanger to warm water for the snowmelt system in the downtown area. This alleviates the need to salt or plow during the winter months. The system can melt approximately 2.5 centimeters of snow per hour in temperatures of -9 to -7 degrees C. “This new combined cycle plant makes a two-fold contribution to environmental protection. On the one hand it replaces a coal-fired plant, which halves the CO2 emissions, and, on the other, it helps do away with the need for salt and grit in the winter,” declares Wolfgang Konrad, head of the Distributed Generation business unit within the Siemens Power and Gas Division. “The City of Holland is a leader in researching and implementing new ways to save and reduce energy consumption. Its cooperation with Siemens is a good example of this. Siemens supports the sustainable strategy of implementing reliable, world-class technologies to build our Holland Energy Park. We plan to make the plant accessible to the public at large to foster further interest in the city’s goal of implementing a socially, economically and environmentally responsible solution for supplying power into the 21st century,” states Daniel Nally, Business Service director of HBPW.