Baseload plants, by definition, are developed to command the greatest hours of dispatch and provide reliable, steady power supply to the grid. In most competitive power grids, plants with the lowest variable cost of generation dispatch first. GE works closely with customers to provide plant solutions enabling the lowest life cycle cost of electricity. Fuel is typically the largest expense with a baseload plant, so high-efficiency offerings can save customers and consumers millions in annual operating costs.
Cyclic operation plants are required to respond to demand fluctuations in the grid throughout normal daily load cycles. In high-renewable penetrated regions, operational flexibility characteristics, such as fast start and ramping, low minimum load, and high part load efficiency, must be provided in addition to low life cycle cost of electricity. GE’s H-class, F-class, and aeroderivative gas turbines lead the industry in both efficiency and operational flexibility, providing customers the ability to develop their optimal balance of cost-effective, flexible power.
Peaking plants are used to deliver cost-effective, reliable power to cover intermittent peak seasonal demands, and typically dispatch less than 1,500 hours per year. Due to limited operating hours, customers seek to construct the lowest CAPEX solutions to meet this demand, which are almost exclusively simple cycle power plants due to their lower cost. Simple cycle gas turbines may avoid the cost associated with high-temperature selective catalytic reduction (SCR) if nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions meet the site regulatory requirements. As such, peaking units with low NOx emissions are desired. GE’s F-class and aeroderivative gas turbines offer the desired combination of fast start and ramping capability, along with low capital investment and low NOx emissions.
Stand-by power is often desired by industrial or commercial facilities to back up their grid connection in the event of a power outage. Stand-by power units run very few hours per year (typically <100 h/y) during grid outages. As such, stand-by power offerings are almost exclusively simple cycle turbines or reciprocating engines that provide a low CAPEX solution with black-start capability and a small footprint. GE’s aeroderivative and heavy duty gas turbines make good stand-by power solutions for large industrial complexes or data centers.
Ancillary services address short-term imbalances in electricity markets by dispatching resources within seconds or minutes to maintain grid stability and security. These services generally include frequency control, reactive power-voltage regulation, spinning reserves, and operating reserves. In deregulated markets, these ancillary services offer customers additional revenue sources beyond capacity and energy revenues. GE’s Digital Power Plant can operate as a virtual battery, providing regulation support previously limited to battery or fly-wheel technologies.
Exelon Exelon, one of the largest competitive U.S. power generators, turned to GE for four 7HA gas turbines, two D600 steam turbines, six generators, and a contractual service agreement for the Wolf Hollow and Colorado Bend gas combined cycle projects, totaling an additional 2,000 MW of capacity for the projects.
“GE’s high-output and high-efficiency H-class technologies will enable us to provide our
customers with reliable
and low-cost energy,” said Ken Cornew, president and CEO, Exelon Generation. Additionally, the plants will use GE’s latest power generation technology, with air-cooled condensers that need just 10 percent of the water amount typically required to cool such large installations. This will save millions of gallons of water a day, which is critical for a drought- stricken area like Texas. The plants are due to be operational in 2017.
Golden Spread Electric Cooperative In the summer heat of the Texas panhandle, farmers rely on irrigation to keep their fields fertile. Golden Spread Electric Cooperative Inc. began using GE’s 7F.05 turbine, operating on the advanced DLN2.6+ combustion system in commercial operation at its Elk Station power plant in June 2015. This system allows for even lower emissions compared to GE’s previous combustion technology. Due to its flexibility, the Elk Station’s 7F.05 unit can integrate with wind energy by providing over 75 percent of full load capacity within 10 minutes. During testing at Elk Station, the 7F.05 turbine with the new DLN2.6+ combustion system achieved 4.8 ppm NOx at site baseload—the first time this low level was achieved. This represents a 46 percent reduction in NOx emissions at the then current baseload conditions. The 7F.05 unit continues to demonstrate NOx at the rated performance below 5.0 ppm.
A Drought Unlike Any Other Texas is no stranger to droughts, but the most recent one has lasted for years, and has hit smaller towns like Granbury particularly hard. “So when people talk about building power plants that could use millions of gallons of water per day, it’s a problem here in town,” said Ed Lesh, a project director at the Wolf Hollow 2 Power Plant.
Watch now to learn more
Techint Group Techint Group selected GE’s F-class technology
for their Central Electrica
Pesqueria combined cycle power plant to provide 900 MW of capacity, marking the first power plant in Mexico to use this power generation equipment. This plant will utilize three 7F.05 gas turbines, a steam turbine and associated generators, and will profit
from GE’s maintenance
expertise through a contractual service agreement.
GE´s full speed, full load test facility located in Greenville, SC is a world class, full-scale gas turbine and compressor validation facility
that understanding
provides of
design
comprehensive processes,
technology and capability to give our customers the confidence of having chosen well tested technology.
“This advanced technology will help us be more sustainable, while we provide reliable and efficient energy to the region’s manufacturing
plants.” said Humberto
Fernandez, CEO of the Pesqueria power plant. “The rigorous test validation of the technology performed at the test facility in Greenville, SC is very helpful to provide certainty when selecting the technology instead of having to wait for an important amount of cumulative operational hours.”
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