SAINT-LAURENT, Quebec, Canada, August 21, 2006 - L-3 Communications MAPPS, a wholly owned subsidiary of L-3 Communications, announced today that it has recently secured four U.S. power plant simulator upgrade contracts from early adopters of L-3 MAPPS’ simulation technology. Southern California Edison (SCE), STP Nuclear Operating Company (STPNOC), Progress Energy and Entergy Nuclear for the San Onofre, South Texas Project, Crystal River and Pilgrim nuclear generating stations, respectively.
San Onofre
SCE has engaged L-3 MAPPS to carry out a significant simulator control room refurbishment for the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS). The project involves replacing control panel instrumentation, complete rewiring of the control panels, replacement of the input/output system and replacement of the simulator’s AC and DC power distribution systems including the power supplies. The simulator outage to accommodate the refurbishment will occur at the end of 2007, with the renovated simulator returning to service in early 2008. In 1991, SCE was L-3 MAPPS’ first customer to re-platform from a legacy simulator computer system to an open system and the first to embrace L-3 MAPPS’ now world-renowned ROSE® modeling environment.
An Edison International company, Southern California Edison serves central, coastal and Southern California and provides nearly 20 percent of the power to more than 15 million people in Southern California. The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, located in San Clemente, California, is made up of two Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactor (PWR) units with a combined net output of 2,200 megawatts.
South Texas Project
For STPNOC, L-3 MAPPS will re-platform the South Texas Project simulator’s current RISC/Unix-based servers to PC/Windows and supply a new instructor station - Isis™, all running L-3 MAPPS’ latest operating environment. The upgraded simulator is targeted to be in service at the end of 2006. L-3 MAPPS’ first major simulator replacement project was awarded in 1991 by STPNOC. The South Texas Project simulator was also the first simulator to take advantage of an end-to-end replacement of software models using L-3 MAPPS’ ROSE environment.
South Texas Project, located about 90 miles southwest of Houston, near Bay City, is one of the newest nuclear power plants in the U.S. The two Westinghouse PWRs produce 2,500 megawatts of electricity, enough for more than one million homes and businesses in south central Texas.
Crystal River
Progress Energy has ordered a similar solution to replace its RISC/Unix-based simulation computers and instructor station on the Crystal River simulator nuclear power plant simulator. Work is to be completed by the spring of 2007. One of the first full-scale simulators developed by L-3 MAPPS for a Babcock & Wilcox PWR unit was ordered in 1986 for Crystal River.
Progress Energy is a Fortune 250 diversified energy company with more than 24,000 megawatts of generation capacity. The single PWR unit, 838-megawatt Crystal River Nuclear Plant is located near Crystal River, Florida.
Pilgrim
At Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Station, as an interim measure to extend the performance of the simulator, L-3 MAPPS will increase the existing computers’ capacity and operating system. Work is to be completed by the end of 2006. L-3 MAPPS started producing its first boiling water reactor (BWR) full-scale simulator for Pilgrim in 1984.
Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the U.S. The Pilgrim Nuclear Station’s single BWR unit in Plymouth, Massachusetts generates 680 megawatts.
"Each of these customers was an early adopter of our innovative technology and provided us with the foundation that has made L-3 MAPPS the global leader in power plant simulation," said Michael Chatlani, vice president, marketing & sales, L-3 MAPPS Power Systems and Simulation. "We value these long-standing relationships and appreciate that these customers continue to entrust us with their challenging simulation needs."
L-3 MAPPS has over 20 years of experience in pioneering technological advances in the marine automation field and over 30 years of experience in delivering high-fidelity power plant simulation to leading utilities worldwide. In addition, the company has more than three decades of expertise in supplying plant computer systems for Canadian heavy water reactors. L-3 MAPPS also provides targeted controls and simulation solutions to the space sector.