Officials with Guidehouse and its Energy, Sustainability and Infrastructure segment recently announced winners of the 2024 Generation Knowledge Service Plant Operational Excellence awards — and one regional Tennessee Valley Authority plant is in the mix.
The Paradise Combined Cycle Plant, located in Drakesboro, has been ranked the top “Combined Cycle Plant” in America, with PacifiCorp’s Currant Creek Power Station, in Mona, Utah, deemed runner-up.
This award recognizes power plants that have demonstrated excellence in cost and operational management, as well as improved performance and reliability.
All eligible plants were separated by technology, with coal plants requiring >50% utilization and combined cycle plants requiring >30%.
Specifically, these awards are based on a review of cost and performance data over the most recent five-year period (2019-2023). Winners were selected after a detailed analysis of cost and performance data from Guidehouse’s industry-leading GKS database, which contains data on more than 233,000 megwatts of coal-fired generation and over 95,000 megawatts of combined cycle generation.
The analysis of cost and performance includes a weighted comparison of non-fuel operation and maintenance costs and availability and reliability measures during the evaluation period. Winners must also finish in the top half for safety performance.
TVA and its leadership will be in Murray State University’s Curris Center Thursday morning for its final quarterly meeting of 2024, no doubt discussing natural gas and its important part of the transition to a carbon-neutral future in the power giant’s platform.
Paradise can go from a cold start to a full electrical load in 10 minutes and 27 seconds, pumping nearly 750 megawatts into the seven-state grid.
TVA’s plan is to add more than 3,800 megawatts of new electric generation by 2028.
