Wood Group GTS has secured a $24m contract with NRG Energy subsidiary Petra Nova to design and construct a 75MW gas turbine peaking facility at the W A Parish Generating Station, located approximately 25 miles south-west of Houston.

The project scope involves installation of the complete peaking plant on a turnkey basis, including a GE Frame 7EA gas turbine supplied by Petra Nova and all associated balance of plant equipment furnished by Wood Group GTS. Additionally, Wood Group GTS will perform a major inspection and all required maintenance on the gas turbine as part of the overall project.

Work on this fast-track project will commence immediately, allowing the unit to be completed by the summer of 2013, in time to provide additional peak generating capacity to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market, which serves 23 million Texas customers. At a later date, the peaking unit is expected to be converted by NRG for use in the planned commercial scale W A Parish post-combustion carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) project, which is part of the Energy Department’s clean coal power initiative (CCPI).

"We are pleased to be working with NRG on this exciting project, which leverages the combined strengths of our engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and maintenance support services, and our management of fast-track projects," said Jim McGlothlin, president of Power Solutions at Wood Group GTS.

David Greeson, vice president, Commercial of Petra Nova stated: "Their gas turbine experience makes Wood Group GTS well suited to the demands of the W A Parish peaking project. We are looking forward to working with their team."