by Derrick Penner

Campbell River Mirror  Friday,  August 17, 2001

Apply whatever cliche you wish - teething troubles, growing pains, gremlins, gum in the gears - the Island Cogeneration Plant has suffered it.

The natural-gas fired electric generating plant is in a stretch of down-time, this one for 35 days, to fix another manufacturer-prescribed repair on a piece of equipment.

Plant manager, Curtis Mahoney said this one is to fix a problem that is inherent to its main generator.  He characterized it as a manufacturer's recall and is something all the owners of Alstom-made generators are going through.

"To say there's no frustration would not be true," Mohoney said.  "At the same time, relative to what's going on in the industry, this is not abnormal.  We're in better shape than a lot of others."

Last fall, the plant was down for several months to fix a defect in the turbine blades the main gas turbine.  It puts the plant close to a year behind the schedule it set at the start of construction in February, 1999.

It is a matter of there being such rapid growth of natural gas-based electric generation that the company's rushing to fill the need and suffering start-up pain in doing so.

"It's not unique to Alstom," Mahoney said. "General Electric, Westinghouse - everyone is experiencing pain and trying to keep their cards close to their chest."

He can't talk about the specific problem the plant has with its generator, the manufacturer has asked Island Cogeneration officials not to.

Besides, Mahoney said, it is a rather complicated  explanation.

He said that otherwise the commissioning process for the Island Cogeneration plant is 95 per cent complete, Plant engineers have operated all parts of the plant including the transfer system that pipes steam to the Norske Skog Elk Falls pulp mill.

Though the plant is not officially commissioned, it has been in operation and producing power for BC Hydro's grid for long stretches of time over the past several months.  The plant has to complete some verification testing before doing an official performance test, then an official reliability run to get its operating certificate.

"For the reliability run, we have to run 15 consecutive days," Mahoney said "And we've done much more than that."

On the business side Mahoney said Island Cogeneration's ownership change should be complete by the end of August. 

That too is slightly behind schedule.  In May, Westcoast Energy agreed to terms to sell off the Island Cogeneration plant and half-shares in two Ontario plants to the U.S. based independent power giant Calpine for $392 million.

End.