West County Energy Center (WCEC) Unit 3 is a world-class, combined cycle combustion turbine project. West County Power Partners, LLC, is managing the project for Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), and Black & Veatch has a major role in completing the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning. With a nominal capacity of 1,250 megawatts (MW), Unit 3 will contribute to FPL’s highly efficient power plant fleet, which serves more than 4.5 million customers in Florida. 

Unit 3 includes three Mitsubishi G-Class combustion turbine generators exhausting into three Nooter/Eriksen heat recovery steam generators, and one Toshiba reheat condensing steam turbine generator, all purchased by FPL. Utilizing its global supply chain, Black & Veatch was responsible for purchasing all other engineered equipment. The unit will have the capability for dual fuel operation using either natural gas or fuel oil. 

FPL completed a project in October 2010 to provide reclaimed water from a local water treatment plant for cooling tower makeup for all three units. The previous source for makeup water was from Floridan aquifer deep wells. This project greatly reduces water used from the wells and increases sustainable practices by putting discharged water from the treatment plant to better use. Black & Veatch, leading the industry in the nexus of water and energy, was responsible for integrating the design of the reclaimed water supply system into the existing plant systems for Units 1 and 2 and for use in Unit 3. 

Black & Veatch also partnered with FPL to optimize and expand the use of common facilities already in place for Units 1 and 2 to provide fuel, water, air and auxiliary steam services to Unit 3. The challenge was to provide economic solutions and still accommodate the necessary services required to supply all three units, which combined have an output of 3,750 MW.

“Black & Veatch has met all commitments to cost, schedule, quality and commissioning,” said Tom Young, FPL’s Project General Manager. “Major milestones have been met, including timely delivery of equipment and drawings and safely completing construction activities.”