CLASS OF 2016
WORLD-GENERATION FEBRUARY/MARCH 2016
6
Scott Osborne is general manager of
the Power business line of Bechtel’s
Infrastructure Global Business Unit. The
Infrastructure GBU is headquartered in
London and comprises the former Power
and Civil GBUs, which were joined in 2015.
The scope of services for Infrastructure
spans airports, highways, bridges, rail, tele-
communications, tunneling . . . and, of
course, power generation.
The Power business is significant in
and of itself, capturing fossil fuel power
generation plants, particularly combined-
cycle projects at present; renewable proj-
ects, including solar and wind; transmission
lines; and plant conversions from coal to
natural gas. Nuclear power generation is in
a different division.
Some of the current projects under
Power’s purview include Panda Energy’s
Stonewall generating station and Hummel
Station generating station, as well as
Advanced Power’s Carroll County generating
station and Cricket Valley Energy Center.
Stonewall is a 778MW combined-cycle
generating station located four miles outside
the northern Virginia town of Leesburg.
Generation is meant to begin next year.
Hummel Station is near Harrisburg,
PA, where Power is working with partner
Siemens to undertake one of the largest
coal-to-gas power conversions in the nation.
This, too, will be a combined-cycle plant,
one designed to produce 1,124MW. The
generating station is rising on the site of
the retired Sunbury coal-fired plant near
Shamokin Dam in Snyder County.
Compared to the old facility, the new
Hummel Station will produce 180 percent
more electricity, reduce SO2 and NOx by
more than 90 percent and use 97 percent
less cooling water. Siemens will produce
the power island including the combustion
and steam turbines, generators, and heat
recovery steam generators. Construction is
expected to last 30 months and be complete
in early 2018. “I think our partnership with
Siemens has been especially strong,”
Osborne says. “We understand how each
company works from the upfront planning
through the engineering phase and into the
field, and the marketplace seems pleased
with the results.”
The Carroll County, OH project for
Advanced Power began last April and is
meant to be finished next year. It, too, is a
combined-cycle plant and will produce 700
MW that will be sold into the PJM market.
It features two GE 7FA.05 gas turbines and
a D602 steam turbine. Bechtel has a turn-
key engineering, procurement and con-
struction (EPC) contract for the project.
More recently, Advanced Power again
chose Bechtel for a project 60 miles north
of New York City. Bechtel was selected as
the EPC contractor for the Cricket Valley
Energy Center, 60 miles north of New York
City, designed as a 1,000MW combined-
cycle natural gas plant using GE turbines.
Recently completed projects include
the Panda Sherman combined-cycle project
north of Dallas, and Temple 1 and Temple 2
projects in Temple, Texas.
“Combined cycle is our main focus,”
says Osborne. “Of course, we have lots of
experience in all sectors but power genera-
tion is moving toward gas. Combined cycle
is a growth market with the available low
cost natural gas and these types of projects
fit nicely into where we at Bechtel can
bring our strengths to bear, that is, in large,
complex projects, especially ones for which
we can work from the initial planning stag-
es all the way through to warranty. We
believe we can bring outstanding value to
clients with our EPC approach. We have
skill sets and experience that are both
broad and deep.”
At the moment, most the work is
domestic, but Osborne says there are good
prospects for new work in Mexico and
Canada as well as in Africa and the UK,
where development is moving away from
coal and toward gas.
“Here’s what we can really bring to the
table,” Osborne says. “Bechtel is full-ser-
vice. We have all the competencies: that is,
engineering, procurement, construction –
from start-up to commissioning. We self-
perform the work, which means we have
the ability to control our destiny and pro-
vide a level of certainty of outcome. We are
a one-stop shop - not a model everyone has,
and it creates value for our customers.”
Bechtel has more than size and 100+
years of experience to offer. Osborne likes
to say the company is nimble and
innovative. “We pride ourselves on being a
‘learning organization,’” he says. “We learn
from each of our past projects and hone our
delivery. We can come to the table with a
standardized delivery model and modify
our execution approach where that makes
sense. We standardize the “what”
associated with project delivery, but allow
the flexibility to implement the best in class
tools and technology, that is, the “how”
associated with project execution. This
model allows us to put the customer first
and deliver a project that meets their
unique needs. With respect to combined
cycle we have developed a center of
excellence. Hundreds of engineers
concentrate just on combined cycle,
researching past projects to learn what
worked and what did not and developing
new techniques to effect greater
efficiencies. It’s a good example of our
‘learning organization’ culture.”
Osborne points as well to what he
considers other Bechtel strengths. For
example, he emphasizes the time and effort
Bechtel works to what he calls “aligning
with the customer” long before
construction begins. This starts by being
“totally open and transparent. We want to
find what’s really important to our
customer and ensure our values and
objectives are aligned. When construction
begins, we want to be ‘joined at the hips.’
Successful projects are the ones aligned
from the beginning,” Osborne says.
“There’s hard work to be done at the
General Manager
Bechtel
SCOTT OSBORNE
(continued page 26)
