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SOUND BITES
Wine Country Bistro serves delicious fare without pretension
Arsenal Hill
SWEPCO announces first combined-cycle plant
Approaching downtown Shreveport from the north, motorists are greeted by a familiar pair of brick smokestacks at Arsenal Hill. The site gets its name from the Confederate munitions arsenal that was located nearby. Over the years, Arsenal HillÕ s role in Shreveport history has changed, but itÕ s still an important part of keeping the residents secure. These days, its historic role has been joined by its peacetime function as the oldest power generating facility in the American Electric Power (AEP) family of companies. Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO), as the local division of the company has long been known, started new construction
INSIDE:
Shreveport facing severe budget problems
at Arsenal Hill over a year ago. The updating is an addition to AEP/SWEPCOÕ s generating capability. The J. Lamar Stall Power Unit, named for the former SWEPCO president, will be a natural gas-fired generator capable of cranking out more than 500 megawatts of electricity. At an estimated construction cost of $378 million, it will be SWEPCO?s first combined-cycle gas power generating unit. Combined-cycle plants are designed to generate electricity more efficiently and consume less fuel per kilowatthour of output than conventional generators. The typical combined-cycle plant uses one or more gas turbines, a heat
July 22, 2009 Vol. XXI, Issue XLIII
NEWSWEEKLY
recovery steam generator and a steam turbine. The three combine to produce electric power for consumers. Natural gas is burned in a combustion chamber to start the electric generation process. As the gas fuel is burned, it creates hot gases. Those gases pass through the blades of a turbine, which is turned by the heat. As heat rises through the blades of the propeller, they turn. The hotter the gas becomes, the faster the rotation. The rotation of the turbine is what generates the electricity.
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