April 12, 2006

CES completed a successful 16 month durability, availability, maintainability, and usability (RAMDU) demonstration of the CES gas generator (GG) in a real-world power plant environment on 30 March 2006. During this reliability demonstration of CES GG, its digital control system, and Kimberlina power plant subsystems, the GG logged more than 300 starts and over 1,300 operating hours. Power was exported to the electrical grid during 141 runs encompassing approximately 1,240 hours of GG operations.

The extended demonstration proved the GG to be both durable and reliable, and it rapidly gained the respect and favor of plant operators. In the spring of 2006, the GG also received insurance coverage as normal power plant equipment. A final (technical) report has been forwarded to the California Energy Commission and formal contract closeout is expected in late May.

The next use of the Kimberlina GG will be for syngas testing in support of a National Energy Technology Laboratory contract (U.S. Department of Energy) to evaluate and develop a coal-based oxy-fuel combustor.