Each independent power producer connecting to the grid seems to have a unique story to tell. In this case, two stories emerge. Entergy Wholesale Operations (New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.) and PPG Industries (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.) each own a 50% share of RS Cogen, which owns a 425-MW cogeneration facility being constructed in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The natural gas-fired, combined-cycle power plant will be in operation in late 2002. Half of the facility's electrical output will supply the PPG plant, and Entergy's power marketing group will sell the other half through the wholesale power market. Earlier, the Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC) decided that power from cogeneration facilities that is consumed by wholesale owner-manufacturers is not subject PSC regulation. The facility will provide process steam to PPG's chemical plant as well as other industrial customers. Within this bigger story exists an underground engineering challenge. Engineering constructor Black & Veatch, (B &V, Overland Park, Kansas, U.S.) was asked to develop a design to bring power from this new generating station to a substation undergoing refurbishment. Space was limited, making it difficult if not impossible to run the needed 69-kV line overhead using traditional construction practices. Instead, the company installed a 1000-ft (305-m) run of three-phase, 69-kV, 500 kcmil extruded-dielectric cable from the generating facility to a new transformer being added to the existing substation with very tight physical constraints.
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