Westinghouse Gas Turbines: On the Move
In October of 1986, the long expected notice was finally received by Concordville employees. CTSD—by then known as Combustion Turbine Operations (CTO)—would be moving to Orlando to join the steam turbine generator operation, which had moved south from Lester and East Pittsburgh four or five years earlier. The actual move took place in April of 1987, when all of those making the move were to report to work at their new location.
Prior to the move, early in 1986, the Power Systems Business Unit management team, headquartered at the Energy Center in Monroeville, Pennyslvania, and now in charge of Power Generation, had formed a Power Generation Task Force. The objective was to better understand the future of the power generation industry, and how Westinghouse could best position itself to grow and prosper in it.
A renowned industry consultant was hired to conduct a market study, and it was then, finally, that appreciation of the importance of gas-turbines to the future of power generation in the United States—if not worldwide—became appreciated. As indicated earlier, this had not been the general view of the old-guard power generation management, and Westinghouse had already started to execute its plan for a "phased exit" from the gas turbine business.
Special mention is made here to Power Generation Task Force member, Will Comtois, a long friend of gas turbines and combined cycles at Power Systems Planning, Gateway, and who repeatedly risked his career with forecasts of a short-lived nuclear power era, and a strong future for the PACE combined cycle concept. Mention is also made of Gordon Hurlbert, Execcutive Vice President of Power Generation, in the early days of the PACE plant, and later President of Power Systems.
It is noteworthy that Don White, the manager of Combustion Turbine Operations in Concordville reported to this same Monroeville-based power generation management team. He appeared devoted to learning about the importance of the gas turbine business, as well as preparing CTSD (or CTO) for its move to Orlando. Following that, White moved to neighboring Broomall, Pennyslvania to manage the move south for PGSD, Power Generation Service Division, to complete the relocation of all PGBU non-manufacturing operations.
The small group of less than 100 that moved with CTO quickly grew through Project Backfill, under Don Jones, prior to his retirement in 1988. A substantial number of Steam Turbine Generator (STG) engineers and managers, as well as many professionals and managers from nuclear projects and engineering operations, and, also, personnel from Westinghouse Canada, found new career opportunities in rebuilding the organization.
Initially, Nick Bartol, reporting to Tom Campbell—under Nat Woodsen, the General Manager of Energy Technology Systems Division (ETSD) in Monroeville, Pennyslvania—was assigned to manage CTO. CTSD managers from Concordville, Reg McIntyre and Jim Borden, reported to him,with the addition of Joe Rumancik, the Manager of Plant Engineering. Just month or so later, a change was announced whereby Bartol was reassigned as STG Engineering Manager, and Hank Kazowka was assigned the job of managing CTO. See the entries for 1987, including organization chart, in the progression of Westinghouse Gas Turbine division management presented in Appendix V.
After moving to Orlando, CTO was incorporated into Generation Technology Systems Division (GTSD), under Tom Campbell. This organization proved to be short-lived, as Campbell and his team were replaced by Frank Bakos and his organization in forming the Power Generation Business Unit, in 1988. Romano Salvatori ran Power Generation Commercial Operations, including CT Marketing. One of the first orders of business for PGBU was to get passed the failed "merger" with Asea Brown Boveri (ABB).
Similarly, Management of CT Engineering changed hands several times from Jim Borden to Doug Fraser and then to Andy Ayoob, who moved over from Nuclear Projects.
The rallying theme behind the CTO move to Orlando: On the Move.
Just after the move, a promotional brochure was produced called "On the Move," to help assure customers and ourselves that Westinghouse was still in the gas turbine business, and that the move to Orlando was good for all.
It also told of another recent big change, such as reaching agreement with Mitsubishi to manufacture the W501D5. While the W251 was still to be built at Westinghouse Canada, the Lester plant closed in 1986. Westinghouse CTO was to continue in the role of technology developers, system and plant designers, application engineers, marketers, project managers, and service providers.
As it turned out, depending on MHI for shop space did not work out very well or for very long. In 1991, PGBU management, then under Frank Bakos, saw fit to end the agreement with MHI and to resurrect the Great North American Factory by using the plant in Pensacola, Florida, for assembly of the W501D5.