Project X - Houston, Texas

Wisvest Equipment Preservation Program

Wisvest’s Project X is a 550 MW combined cycle project to be built at a site not committed yet.

The advanced procurement for Project X progressed to a point of an irrevocable commitment to purchase the power island equipment from Siemens-Westinghouse Power Corporation (SWPC). As a result of this, Sterling Energy was engaged by Wisvest to develop and manage the receiving and preservation program with Sterling Energy’s scope including:

• Liaison with SWPC for shipment and receipt of equipment
• Comprehensive management of all transportation
• Disbursement and billing services for inland transportation and third party materials and services
• Direct management of warehouse and heavy haul contracts
• Implementation and maintenance of comprehensive inventory records
• Filing and storage of manuals and equipment documentation
• Implementation of a comprehensive equipment preservation program
• Support for spare parts, if requested, for other projects

The receiving effort encompassed some 1100 shipments from 80 different suppliers. For international shipments of major equipment, such as gas turbines, steam turbine, generators, etc., the point of transfer from SWPC to Sterling Energy was the Port of Houston. The point of transfer for domestic shipments was the manufacturers’ factory.

Sterling Energy engaged a freight forwarder to coordinate shipments and a local heavy haul contractor for lifting and transporting the heavy haul items. Approximately 80,000 square feet of warehouse space was leased between two warehouse locations, and an additional 6 acres of outdoor lay-down yard space was leased.

A small project team was assembled to conduct the program, with the team consisting of several senior SEM managers and local hires.

Unique to this project was the building of humidity controlled enclosures for nearly all of the equipment stored inside the warehouses. This was due to two reasons. Firstly, it was done to protect against the high humid conditions which are present in Houston for most of the year, and secondly, due the availability of dehumidifiers as part of the gas turbine equipment and low cost of building the enclosures.

The framed and tarped enclosures provide an overall added measure of equipment protection against humidity, dust and dirt for the plant equipment, and serve as a theft deterrent.

Sterling Energy developed a preservation program intended to protect the value of the asset for the term of the storage period. Periodic inspections and routine maintenance were performed on the equipment in conformance with the vendor’s recommendations and prudent long-term maintenance practices.

During the first year of storage, the equipment was sold back to SWPC who chose to perform the ongoing preservation inspections and maintenance by their staff resident in Houston.

A comprehensive physical inventory of the equipment, as well as turnover of project files and maintenance history database, took place prior to Sterling Energy’s departure from management of the preservation program.

Storage Location:

   Houston, Texas

Project Description:

   2 X V84-3A gas turbine combined cycle project

Owner:

   Wisvest Corporation

Primary Equipment Supplier:

   Siemens-Westinghouse