POWER July 2023 - 14

PLANT OF THE YEAR
Estrella del Mar III, a Visionary
Floating Power Plant, Is POWER's
Plant of the Year
Courtesy: Siemens Energy
Winning POWER's highest honor is Estrella del Mar III, a first-of-its-kind floating
combined cycle gas turbine power barge that fulfills a remarkable assortment of
modern power system demands. Nearly fully built in Singapore by an international
team that delicately integrated shipbuilding and power engineering, the pioneering
SeaFloat plant sailed more than 10,000 miles for final commissioning in Santo
Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. The innovative 148-MW project
exemplifies an efficient, ecological, economical, and resilient power solution
that triumphs over land and cost constraints.
Sonal Patel
I
n 2017, Transcontinental Capital Corp., a
Seaboard independent power producing
subsidiary, approached Siemens
Energy, requesting a power generating
solution that was more efficient and flexible
than its current and previously owned
fleet of power-generating engine barges
in the Dominican Republic. At first, Siemens
Energy's experts at the company's
gas turbine production campus in Finspång,
Sweden, proposed a standard
natural gas-fired land-based power plant.
But when Seaboard insisted that the solution
would need to be a floating power
barge due to space constraints, Finspång
re-assessed the feasibly of floating a fullsize
industrial gas turbine power plant and
ultimately accepted the challenge.
" That's how it started, " Jakob Tyroller,
general project manager of Estrella del
Mar III, told POWER. Over the next few
years, the project quickly garnered steam.
Bolstered by a landmark collaboration with
the marine arm of Singapore engineering
group ST Engineering, the complex
first-of-its-kind project took shape on a
self-supporting barge at a shipyard in Singapore.
Following a challenging 46-day
journey spanning 14,000 nautical miles
14
across the world onboard a heavy-lift semisubmersible
vessel (Figure 1), the nearly
completed plant arrived to its destination
on Ocoa Bay, Santo Domingo. On June 1,
2022, with hot commissioning wrapped
up, the project-a vision realized-was officially
delivered to Seaboard.
But Estrella del Mar III is also POWER's
2023 Plant of the Year award winner
because the pioneering project showcases
an array of industry integration. Leveraging
power and marine engineering
under a uniquely forged intercontinental
partnership, the project is expected to
strengthen competence and experience
for oil and gas solutions. In addition,
the flexible gas turbine combined cycle
power plant-already capable of combusting
hydrogen at volumes of 75%-
integrates a SIESTART battery energy
storage solution, ensuring Estrella del
Mar III will be equipped to address present
and future hurdles anticipated within
a rapidly changing power landscape. Today,
while the plant ensures reliability of
a power-hungry region, it also provides
cost-effective power, and according to
its owner, it is-by a wide margin-the
most efficient power plant in the Dominican
Republic's power system.
www.powermag.com
1. Estrella del Mar III begins its journey
across the world from Singapore, where it
was fabricated, to its destination on Ocoa Bay,
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Courtesy:
Siemens Energy
A Custom Solution
Floating power plants aren't novel-they
have been used widely as a source of
flexible decentralized power generation
for decades, mainly because they can
be built cost-effectively and rapidly, and
they are mobile, which means they can
be relocated and traded. In addition,
they can be deployed even in the most
remote locations and under challenging
ambient conditions, both for temporary
or permanent power. But for Seaboard's
Transcontinental Capital Corp., power
barges win out over land-based plants
for two additional key reasons. The first
POWER| July 2023
http://www.powermag.com
POWER July 2023

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