AES Begins “First Fire” on Thursday, October 3rd

The new AES power plant near Newland Street and Pacific Coast Highway southwest of Ascon expects to start up the gas turbines for the new Huntington Beach Energy Project on Thursday, October 3. This is a visible activity for the power plant and not associated with Ascon.

AES explains: “During ‘first fire’, natural gas is combined with air and ignited through a combustion process to rotate the gas turbines. The heat generated from this process is used to convert water into high pressure steam. Following a successful first fire, high pressure steam will be used to thoroughly clean the plant steam pipes to avoid damage to the steam turbine. During the Steam Blow process, steam will be released from a temporary pipe and vented to the atmosphere. This will create a large steam plume that will be visible for the duration of each steam blow.”

The new AES facility’s steam blows may be expected between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. AES has provided more information about the Huntington Beach Energy Project commissioning and start up at http://www.renewaeshuntington.com/HBEP%20Commissioning%20and%20Start%20Up%20FAQ_rev8.pdf