Mistral Power Crowsnest Power Plant Operational
Mistral Power is pleased to announce the successful commissioning and sustained operation of their
Crowsnest Power Plant near Sparwood, BC. The facility, which captures waste heat from natural gas
turbines at a pipeline compressor station and converts the waste heat into electricity for sale into the
local power utility, has been operational since late 2012. The power plant generates an equivalent
amount of energy to supply approximately 4,000 residential homes on an annual basis. Because the
power is produced from waste heat the power plant has no emissions.
The 7.1 MW nameplate Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) plant is the first of its kind in many regards. The
plant was custom designed to operate at a high efficiency over a wide range of operating conditions.
The plant has shown an ability to convert heat into electricity at efficiency of over 22%, which is higher
than any other operating ORC plants in similar waste heat recovery service.
Mistral has developed and implemented an ORC cycle using butane in a supercritical phase as a working
fluid. To convert heat to power at high efficiency, a high pressure expansion ratio of the butane through
the turbine was specified. This necessitated a 2 stage turbine driving a single gearbox and generator.
This first of a kind radial inflow turbine for this service has proven to have more operating flexibility and
better efficiency than typical single stage designs.
Mistral’s ORC Plant has other innovations such as the use of variable frequency motors on the
circulating pumps to minimize the parasitic load required to operate the plant. The evaporator that
vaporizes the butane is also highly efficient and innovative in that “boiling” is eliminated and
evaporation is done at a supercritical pressure that improves the overall efficiency of heat exchange
between the secondary thermal heat transfer fluid and the butane.
Mistral, along with a Calgary based engineering firm, designed, specified, procured, constructed and is
now operating this unique ORC facility. Mistral is very pleased with the deployment of this technology
and is now actively pursuing opportunities to implement more waste heat recovery projects with this
design.
For any additional information on the project or the technology, please contact project manager Ken
Temple at ktemple@mistralenergy.ca or any of the Mistral Power management team.