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TRAININGVirginia City Hybrid Energy Center-Training is key to first-time runningThe new US-based 585MW Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center is part of Dominion’sresponse to meeting a projected growth in demand for electricity of 4,000MWs from its customersby 2017, or enough electricity to power one million homes. WIP has the story.The Virginia City Hybrid EnergyCenter [right] - a US$1.8 billionproject - is apparently ‘well onschedule and on budget’ for commercialoperation by July 2012.Construction began in 2008, is now 98%complete, following the November 2011‘First Fire ‘ - a key milestone in thecommissioning process for 585MW stationFossil fuels, such as coal, oil and naturalgas, are non-renewable sources of energy.Dominion's fossil-fueled power stationsgenerate more than 40% of the powerprovided to its customers.“Top-quality training, a dedicated workforceand advanced technologies are thekeys to being a pacesetter in fossil-fuelgeneration,” a company spokesman toldWIP.Since coal-fired power stations producegases and airborne particles known as flyash, Dominion has a comprehensiveapproach to protecting the environment.Its power stations use a variety oftechniques to reduce harmful emissions,including electrostatic precipitators andsystems that reduce nitrogen oxide, suchas selective catalytic reduction.The 585-megawatt Virginia City HybridEnergy Center is part of Dominion’sresponse to meeting a projected growthin demand for electricity of 4,000MWfrom its customers by 2017, or enoughelectricity to power one million homes. Itwas five years ago in 2007 when The ShawGroup Inc. was first awarded anengineering, procurement andconstruction contract to develop the siteby Dominion.Once the plant is up-and-running VirginiaCity will be one of the cleanest powerstations of its kind. The circulatingfluidised bed unit will use coal and up to20% biomass for its fuel. A Virginia Techeconomic impact study concluded that thestation will generate about US$440 milliona year in tax revenues and other benefitsfor Wise County.The station will provide nearly 1,000jobs during construction and require apermanent staff of more than 75 peopleonce it begins operating. It will createabout 350 mining jobs. Dominion has provideda task-tailored comprehensive training& education programme for all itsworkers, as well as full health & safetytraining.[Left] David A. Christian, chief executiveofficer for Dominion Generation, whichoperates electricity-generating stationsfor Dominion Virginia Power, told WIP:"First fire back in November 2011 proveda major milestone for the Virginia Cityproject and signified a shift fromconstruction to a station focused onexcellent operations."He said: "There have been manytalented and dedicated people who haveworked over 12.5 million hours to get tothat point. This sets the stage for successfulproject completion in the Summer of2012."Initial cleaning, heating and testing atVCHEC will be performed using fuel oil.Part of the activity surrounding first firingwill be the release of steam – calledsteam blows – which is a commontechnique used to clean the piping beforesteam is sent to the turbines that spin thestation's electric generator.Advanced circulating fluidized bed technologyis proven clean-coal technologythat also enables the using of run-of-minecoal, waste coal and renewable energysources, such as wood waste. CFB technologycombined with modern post-combustioncontrols has low emissions of sulfurdioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulatematter and mercury.WIPInternet linkwww.dom.com32M ARCH 2012 • WORLDWIDE I NDEPENDENT P OWER