GE Celebrates Commercial Operation of World's Leading Gas Turbine Technology; Baglan Bay is Global Showcase for H System PORT
TALBOT, Wales--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 12, 2003--The global electric power industry enters a new era today, as Welsh political and business leaders gather with GE Power Systems executives and global customers at the Baglan Bay Power Station to celebrate the commercial operation of the world's most powerful and most efficient gas turbine technology. This is a major milestone not only for GE, but for the entire power industry. Baglan Bay marks the world's first installation of our H System(TM), said John Rice, president and chief executive officer of GE Power Systems. The H System is the first gas turbine combined-
cycle technology capable of achieving 60% thermal efficiency.
Higher thermal (fuel) efficiency translates into lower cost of producing electricity and lower emissions. A natural gas-fired combined cycle plant configured with the H System could realize fuel cost savings of $2 million a year compared to today's most efficient combined-cycle plants which operate in the range of 57-58% efficiency. As the commercial demonstration site for the world's most advanced gas turbine combined-cycle technology, Baglan Bay will serve as a global showcase for electric power generation, Rice added. The performance data we will collect from Baglan Bay will enable us to continue improving our technology, further enhancing our ability to help our customers meet the world's energy demands. Producing Power And Steam Built by GE on land leased from BP Chemicals Limited, the Baglan Bay Power Station is being operated by GE's European Operations & Maintenance group and is providing electricity and steam to the Baglan Energy Park and BP Chemicals' Baglan isopropanol plant, with the remaining electricity going to the U.K. national grid. In addition to the H System, the power station also includes a 33-megawatt combined heat and power plant based on a GE LM2500 gas turbine. The H System is the world's most powerful single-shaft combined-cycle system, with a single GE 109H combined-cycle package rated at 480 megawatts of electricity, enough for half a million households. During testing at the site, the H System generated output of up to 530 megawatts of power at 44 degrees F (6.7 degrees C) for the U.K. national grid. In combined-cycle technology, the exhaust heat from the gas turbine is used to produce steam to drive a steam turbine, which generates additional power, thus increasing fuel efficiency. The heart of the H System is the 50-hertz, Frame 9H gas turbine. It measures 39 feet in length, has a diameter of 16 feet and weighs 811,000 pounds. GE's Most Tested Turbine The H System represents the most thoroughly tested industrial gas turbine technology in GE's more than 100-year history. Tests, which involved more than 7,000 sensors placed on the equipment, validated GE's innovative closed-loop steam cooling system, which permits the higher firing temperatures required for increased efficiency while retaining combustion temperatures at levels consistent with low emissions. Following the successful conclusion of the tests, instrumented components used to gather data were replaced with commercial non-instrumented components. The system has been restarted for commercial operation. GE developed the H System as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Turbine System program. In addition to the new steam cooling system, GE engineers designed the H turbine's first-stage buckets and nozzles with single-crystal materials to withstand higher temperatures over a long service life. Much of the H design, however, is based on proven turbine technology. The H compressors were based on the compressor designed for the CF6-80C2 aircraft engine and its aeroderivative LM6000 gas turbine. A dry low NOx combustion system, which mixes fuel and air prior to ignition to reduce emissions to 25 parts per million for the 9H, has been proven in millions of hours of operation on other GE gas turbines around the world. In parallel with the activities at Baglan Bay, a 60-hertz version of the H System has been successfully tested at full-speed, no-load conditions at GE's Greenville, SC gas turbine manufacturing facility. What's Next for the H System GE expects to begin offering the H System as a commercial product beginning in the last quarter of 2003. Future shipments for the H System will be covered under a previously announced agreement signed by GE and Toshiba of Japan in 1998. Under this agreement, GE has H System integration and performance responsibility, and will design and manufacture the H gas turbines and supply the integrated systems controls for the power train. Toshiba will manufacture the GE-designed compressors, along with Toshiba-designed generators and steam turbines. GE has an order from Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to supply three 109H systems for TEPCO's Futtsu Thermal Power Station Group 4 project in Japan. The combined output of the three systems will be 1,520 megawatts. About GE Power Systems GE Power Systems (www.gepower.com) is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation technology, energy services and management systems with 2002 revenues of nearly $23 billion. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, GE Power Systems provides equipment, service and management solutions across the power generation, oil and gas, distributed power and energy rental industries.
--30--YS/at*
CONTACT: GE Power Systems, Atlanta
Dennis Murphy, 770-859-6948
[email protected]
or
Masto Public Relations
Ken Darling or Howard Masto, 518-786-6488
[email protected]
[email protected]