Individual Achievement recognition is earned by industry professionals who have demonstrated excellence throughout their careers in the design, construction, operation, and/or maintenance of generating facilities powered by gas turbines. The five outstanding individuals profiled below were selected by a special CCUG committee to receive their 2016 Individual Achievement Awards during the organization’s Sixth Annual Conference in San Antonio.
Rodger Anderson
Manager of Gas Turbine Technology, DRS-Power Technology Inc
Rodger Anderson has spent his entire professional career of more than 50 years supporting electric power producers. The Minnesota farm boy began his journey at GE shortly after earning a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. Over the next 29 years, Anderson would work extensively on the design of rotors and airfoils for heavy-duty gas turbines, and manage development programs that produced three engine designs, flange to flange.
His next stop was Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co as gas turbine manager. Duties there included development of engine-specific guidelines for loss avoidance. In mid-2001 Anderson joined what today is DRS-Power Technology Inc as manager of gas turbine technology, his current position. The company is an engineering services business focused on machinery and systems design for naval and commercial powerplants.
Anderson is respected for his practical gas-turbine solutions benefiting owner/operators—including compressor vane pinning to mitigate the effects of hook-fit wear. A proactive supporter of user groups, he alerted large frame operators to the fretting of compressor vane bases caused by clocking of rotating blades and also worked closely, pro bono, with the 7EA Users Group to investigate the root cause of clashing.
J Edward Barndt
Senior Vice President, Rockland Capital
There isn’t nearly enough space here to summarize Ed Barndt’s four decades of experience in power generation. Today he oversees plant operations and asset management for Rockland Capital’s nearly 4000-MW portfolio and conducts technical due diligence of acquisitions under consideration.
Barndt is a proactive, confident leader who honed his skills managing generating plants worldwide. He is a distressed-assets “turnaround” expert. One example is the Eagle Point Combined Cycle Facility, where he recently led a renovation and upgrade project that uses steam from the plant’s previous cogeneration operation to increase output by 70 MW and reduce heat rate by about 700 Btu/kWh.
Prior to joining Rockland, Barndt was VP South Asia for Globeleq with full responsibility for two combined-cycle stations and a barge-mounted diesel plant in Bangladesh that together produced 30% of the country’s electricity. An earlier overseas assignment was as general manager of the Taweelah A2 Power and Desalination Station in Abu Dhabi. Between these two international assignments, Barndt was plant manager of InterGen North America’s Cottonwood Energy Facility in Texas, which is equipped with four 1 × 1 F-class combined cycles.
Andrew M Donaldson, PE
Vice President of Projects, WorleyParsons
One could characterize Andy Donaldson’s career as a study in power engineering diversity; he’s participated in the design of just about everything since joining the consulting firm Burns & Roe as a mechanical engineer in 1971 with a master’s degree from Stanford University. Early work was mostly on nuclear and coal-fired units, but interspersed were diversified assignments—including wood and peat firing, fluidized-bed boilers, potato processing, etc.
Donaldson left Burns & Roe after about 10 years, moving to Stearns-Roger Engineering Corp in Denver where he spent the better part of a decade contributing to a wide variety of industrial, utility, and non-utility generation projects involving alternative fuels, emissions control, gasification, etc.
In 1987, Donaldson returned to the East Coast, putting in a few years at WorleyParsons before accepting the CEO position at Technicon Enterprises Inc, a small engineering firm. He returned to WorleyParsons three years later where Donaldson’s involvement in gas-turbine projects increased in response to market demand.
He recognized early the value of user groups. An ASME Fellow and past chairman of the society’s Power Division Executive Committee, Donaldson believed design engineers needed feedback to assure the F-class plants being purchased in large numbers as the late 1990s would meet expectations. So he convinced ASME to let him start a Combined Cycle Users Group in 2000.
Donaldson chaired the group though 2008, attaching it to several industry events during the early years to hold down costs. However, the group never really gained traction until it began operating autonomously in 2011. Today, CCUG is conducted successfully under the PowerUsers umbrella along with the Generator, Steam Turbine, and 7F Users Groups.
Wayne T Kawamoto
Plant Manager, CAMS Juniper CA LLC’s Corona Cogeneration Plant
Wayne Kawamoto’s involvement with gas turbines and user groups go way back—more than three decades. It would be difficult to identify someone who has volunteered more time to the development and operation of a user group than he has given the Western Turbine Users Inc.
The 1974 civil engineering graduate was just turning 30 when assigned by then employer Hawaiian Independent Refinery Inc to commission, in 1983, the first US land-based LM2500 electric generation package designed by Stewart & Stevenson.
Kawamoto’s close association with other owner/operators began in 1986, when those who would form and incorporate WTUI in 1990 gathered in plant break rooms for meetings. He has been a proactive and vocal user since, affectionately called “maddog” by industry friends. Kawamoto became WTUI treasurer when the group incorporated and continues in that position today; he also has served as a director of the organization.
Kawamoto spent 17 years as plant manager of Wheelabrator Norwalk Energy Co, a 28-MW combined-cycle cogeneration facility which provided electricity to Southern California Edison Co and steam and chilled water to a nearby hospital. He has managed Corona Cogen, powered by an LM5000 STIG-120, since. Interesting to note is that Kawamoto participated in the SCAQMD emissions reduction rulemaking process by demonstrating the viability of using steam injection for reducing NOx emissions.
Rick Shackelford
Division Director, Power Plant Operations, NAES Corp
Rick Shackelford has spent his entire 37-year power-industry career on, or close to, the deck plates—serving as plant engineer, electrical maintenance supervisor, O&M supervisor, and plant manager. He was appointed division director earlier this year. Shackelford is best known by CCUG members for his 16 years of service as manager of J-Power USA’s 800-MW combined cycle, Green Country Energy.
He has a passion for sharing powerplant experiences, information, and resources to benefit others, and the industry in general. Illustrations of his efforts include the following:
- Member (and past chairman) of the Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology’s Power Plant Technology Industry Advisory Board. This includes sponsoring a student internship at Green Country Energy.
- Vice chair of the CTOTF™ Combined Cycle Roundtable.
- Host and facilitator of an annual two-day 7FA combined-cycle mini-conference attended by a dozen utilities and IPPs in the Oklahoma area.
- Presenter before the Oklahoma House of Representatives and others in support of increased funding for technical education.