GE Power announces HA gas turbine's new achievements and services upgrades

HA gas turbines with many improvements

According to the International Energy Agency, the world energy demand is expected to rise 30 percent through 2040, which is the equivalent of adding another India and China to today’s energy demand. To meet this increase in demand, natural gas, rapid rise of renewables and energy efficiency improvements will lead the way.

"With the broadest portfolio of fuel choices and industry-leading technology, GE Power is leading customers through this energy transition,” said Russell Stokes, president and CEO of GE Power. “We continue to see gas playing an important role in the world’s energy mix including as a complement to variable renewables. Our HA technology enables unprecedented levels of efficiency to help customers reach more aggressive emissions goals.”

GE’s HA debuted in 2016 as the world’s largest, most-efficient and advanced heavy-duty gas turbine, and since then, it has delivered two world records for efficiency across 50- and 60-hertz segments.

Today, the HA has achieved more than 118,000 operating hours and is the fastest growing fleet of gas turbines in the world with 76 units ordered by more than 25 customers across 15+ countries.

Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) and its partner GE Energy Financial Services announced that the CPV Towantic Energy Center in Oxford, Connecticut, has achieved commercial operation—marking the 26th HA unit to begin operation. This new plant uses two 7HA.01 gas turbines and associated engineered equipment package. The 805-megawatt combined-cycle plant can provide the equivalent power needed to supply more than 800,000 US homes, and the HA’s dual-fuel capability allows the turbines to run on a variety of fuels, adding significant reliability benefits to the region.

Tennessee Valley Authority's Thomas H. Allen Fossil Plant in Memphis, Tennessee, as well as the Haveli Bahadur Shah and Bhikki power plants in Pakistan, also have recently achieved commercial operation.

Work at the Porto de Sergipe power plant, in Barra dos Coqueiros, Brazil, is progressing with three 7HA.02 gas turbines and three generators arriving at the Sergipe port on June 1.

GE will supply the entire power island engineered package as well as the remaining balance of plant such as cooling towers, foundations roads and buildings. When completed, the plant—owned by Centrais Elétricas de Sergipe S.A. (CELSE)—will be capable of generating 1,516MW, the largest gas power plant in the country.

With an extensive amount of wind and hydro power in Brazil, GE’s 7HA technology will play an important role in enabling a quick response to fluctuations in grid demand and adapting rapidly to weather changes.

GE Power is a world leader in power generation with deep domain expertise

GE Power also is continuing its investments in its existing fleet. Today, GE Power and Vattenfall Wärme Berlin AG—a subsidiary of Swedish utility Vattenfall AB—announced the new MXL2 with Additive Manufactured Performance—the world’s first upgrade solution for GE’s GT13E2 gas turbines that uses key components manufactured using additive technology.

Because these components are made with a lightweight configuration and can be engineered to include advanced cooling channels, they help the gas turbine run more efficiently, representing a new frontier in turbine engineering and production. This announcement is the third in a series of investments GE Power has announced in the last six weeks.

This breakthrough technology can significantly elevate the output and efficiency of existing 13E2 gas turbines. It’s capable of: reducing component cooling requirements by up to 25 per cent; increasing output up to 21MW in a combined-cycle configuration; achieving additional efficiency up to 1.6 per cent in a combined-cycle configuration; and delivering maintenance intervals of up to 48,000 hours.

The new MXL2 with Additive Manufactured Performance can help gas plant power producers save up to $2 million in fuel annually, while opening up the potential for additional revenue of up to $3 million annually in new power capacity. This underpins GE’s commitment to keep its mature fleets competitive in today’s very dynamic marketplace.