‘GE’s flagship gas turbines achieve world’s record efficiency levels’

GREENVILLE, South Carolina: General Electric’s flagship gas turbines in Pakistan have achieved the world’s record efficiency levels after encountering some teething problems at the start, the company’s top official said.

“It is a matter of great pride for us that both of our 9HA turbines have attained efficiency levels close to the world’s record levels of above 62 percent set for GE’s HA turbines in both the 50 and 60 hertz segments,” Chuck Nugent, chief executive officer and president of Gas Power Systems at GE Power told The News.

Nugent, recalling the technical hiccups at the early days of turbines’ operation, said 9HA turbines encountered some teething problems, but “our engineers had fixed them”.

In 2015, GE won the contracts to supply Pakistan with six turbines for the three power plants in Haveli Bahadur Shah, Bhikki, and Balloki in Punjab.

The three plants are estimated to have a combined power production capacity of 3,600 megawatts. The first two have already started production, while the third one will start electricity generation within a next couple of weeks.

The plan was to fire up the turbines in simple cycle mode - delivering around 800MW per power plant - in the spring of 2017 and then to upgrade to 1,200MW combined cycle output after the summer. Yet, they couldn’t start production as per the schedule.

GE, in a statement then, said the three plants are expected to deliver enough power to supply the equivalent of 7.3 million homes over their 30-plus-year life cycle, and that will make a “meaningful difference in the everyday lives of the people of Pakistan”.

The 9HA-class gas turbines, the GE power division’s newest and most prestigious product, entered the Guinness World Records last year for efficiency, based

on the amount of electricity generated from natural gas at the power plant in France, where it was first put into commercial operation in June 2016.

GE Power also announced major accomplishments by its highly efficient HA gas turbine and its services portfolio. These achievements included commercial operation of 26 HA turbine and introduction of the new additive technology MXL2 upgrade for the company’s GT13E2 turbine.

A company’s official told media persons coming from different parts of the world, including Pakistan, the technology upgrade offers power producers up to three million dollars of additional revenue and up to two million dollars in fuel saving in a year.

Chief Executive Officer and President Russell Stokes of GE Power said HA technology enables unprecedented levels of efficiency to help customers reach aggressive emission goals.

“Reduction in cost of power production and reliability are other benefits of this technology,” Stokes said. “The GE’s HA fleet has become the fastest growing in the world with 76 units already ordered by more than 25 customers across 15 countries.”