Generator terminals
Not in scopeNot in contracted scope for this engagement. The upgrade focus was on steam-cycle thermal performance and on the controls governing the unit's interconnection behavior.
Thermal performance verification and voltage / frequency control testing on an upgraded 300 MW steam turbine in Puerto Rico — for GENERA, the operator that took over PREPA's generation assets.
Costa Sur is a 300 MW conventional thermal plant in Puerto Rico, configured around a steam turbine and operated by GENERA — the operator that took over PREPA's generation portfolio under Puerto Rico's grid restructuring.
Grid Code Engineering delivered the post-upgrade performance and control-system verification program: a thermal performance test campaign, plus voltage and frequency regulation testing and primary frequency control characterization at the unit's interconnection.
This engagement represents GCE's first delivered work outside Mexico — and a deliberate proof point that the methodology travels.
Scope focused on plant-level interconnection behavior and on post-upgrade thermal performance. Level 01 generator-terminal testing was not in the contracted scope for this engagement; the upgrade focused on steam-cycle thermal performance and on the controls that govern the unit's interconnection behavior.
Not in contracted scope for this engagement. The upgrade focus was on steam-cycle thermal performance and on the controls governing the unit's interconnection behavior.
Voltage and frequency regulation at the unit's interconnection. Primary frequency control characterization — a test that matters more on the Puerto Rico grid than on a larger interconnected system, because the island grid has limited capacity for frequency excursions.
Thermal performance verification per applicable performance code, on the steam turbine after the unit upgrade. This is the test that proves the upgrade actually delivered the contracted performance improvement.
The Puerto Rico grid is an island system with its own regulatory framework — distinct from the codes we operate under in Mexico, Brazil and Chile. Mobilizing equipment, engineers and documentation to Puerto Rico required customs coordination, local power-sector regulatory awareness, and the discipline of running a test campaign in a jurisdiction where the engineering vocabulary is familiar but the regulatory format is different.
Steam-turbine performance work, in particular, demands tight ambient and steam-condition control across the test window. The campaign was sequenced around the operator's dispatch availability and the local weather, with continuous calibration verification on the test-side instrumentation.
The post-upgrade thermal performance was verified against the upgrade contract guarantees. The voltage and frequency regulation tests confirmed the unit's behavior at the interconnection. The deliverables were accepted by the operator.
Costa Sur stands today as the firm's first international engagement and as the template for how the methodology adapts to non-Mexican regulatory contexts.
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