BELLEVUE, Wash., June 12, 2006 – Pratt & Whitney (P&W), a United Technologies
Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company, has reached agreement with American Electric Power
(AEP) to lease the first commercially available SHOCKSystem™ online coal boiler cleaner
for its Rockport, Indiana plant. Financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.
AEP will operate the SHOCKSystem™ in one of its 1,300 megawatt coal boilers at Rockport
to remove large ash accumulations while the boiler is online. Removal of these ash piles
online will improve boiler availability, increase efficiency, and reduce emissions. In four
days of initial operation, the SHOCKSystem™ at Rockport removed 300,000 lbs of ash and
improved boiler efficiency by over 0.2%.
| "We are very happy to have AEP as our utility launch customer. The SHOCKSystem™ installation will help Rockport run more efficiently." - Greg Jones, Director of Pratt & Whitney Speciality Materials Services |
"We are very happy to have AEP as our utility launch customer," said Greg Jones, Director
of Pratt & Whitney Specialty Material Services, "The SHOCKSystem™ installation will help
Rockport run more efficiently."
The SHOCKSystem is an industrial application of pulse detonation technology – an
unsteady combustion process being developed for advanced military/aerospace propulsion.
The SHOCKSystem™ uses combustion-driven detonation waves to remove tenacious
deposits from boiler heat transfer surfaces while running with low operating and
maintenance costs. P&W introduced the SHOCKSystem to the utility market at the
December 2005 Power-Gen International trade show.
American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States,
delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the
nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 36,000 megawatts of generating
capacity in the U.S. AEP’s Rockport plant is home to two 1,300 megawatt boilers, the
largest coal boilers in the world. AEP, based in Columbus, Ohio, is celebrating its 100th
anniversary in 2006.
Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft
engines, space propulsion systems and industrial products. United Technologies, based in
Hartford, Conn., is a diversified company that provides high technology products and
services to the aerospace and building industries worldwide.
The SHOCKSystem™ solution outperforms other sootblower systems with its
larger cleaning radius; flexible design; programmability; and lower annual operating costs. |
