Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Continuing its commitment to deliver solutions to help power producers remain competitive in a dynamic energy marketplace, GE’s Power Services business (NYSE: GE) has expanded its Advanced Gas Path (AGP) capabilities around the world. Over the past several years, GE’s AGP technology has been installed on 435 units across four of its gas turbine fleets, generating $775 million a year in benefits to power producers and the markets they serve in 39 countries on five continents.
“Our high-performing AGP solutions have been proven around the world for nearly a decade by improving gas plant performance and competitiveness to help meet growing power demands,” said Scott Strazik, president and CEO of GE’s Power Services business. “AGP is delivering benefits on a global scale to our customers in mature markets such as the United States and Western Europe, where efficiency and flexibility are crucial. At the same time, AGP is helping our customers in growing markets like the Middle East, Africa, Asia, China and Eastern Europe, where they need more megawatts for industrial use and the grid.”
Today, GE announced three milestones with its AGP technology: an agreement to upgrade gas turbines in Italy, as well as two installations at power plants in Iraq and Turkey.
In Italy, GE will help Edison, part of Electricité de France (EDF Group) and Italy’s second largest integrated energy company, enhance its performance with AGP upgrades for a GE 9F.03 gas turbine at its Candela combined-cycle power station in Puglia, Italy. The upgrades are expected to increase the plant’s output by 5 percent and improve its global efficiency by almost 1 percentage point. In addition, GE’s predictive maintenance software and cybersecurity solution will improve Candela’s asset visibility, reliability and security while decreasing operating and maintenance costs at the plant.
In Iraq, GE installed AGP on four of its gas turbines at the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity’s (MOE’s) Najibiya power plant, one of the eight sites where GE is installing a total of 36 AGP units as part of the Iraq Power Up Plan II. AGP will help each turbine run for up to an additional three months a year when the plant is powered by heavy fuel oil. As a result, the plant will increase the amount of electricity available for both domestic and commercial use, helping to meet the country’s growing energy needs. It will also help the MOE to lower annual operations and maintenance costs.
In addition, the installation of AGP technology on 10 GE gas turbines was finalized at ENKA’s power plants. The result was a 6 percent output increase on the GE 9F gas turbines. The project was the first order for GE’s 9F AGP technology, which delivered upgraded performance and operational flexibility.
GE’s AGP solution has delivered significant market-based benefits around the globe, including providing about 7 gigawatts of additional power capacity. AGP is generating nearly 19.4 million additional megawatt-hours (MWh) of power a year, which is enough to power approximately 2 million homes.
With AGP upgrades, GE 9F gas turbines can achieve up to an 8 percent output increase and up to a 2 percent efficiency increase, whereas GE 6F gas turbines can realize up to a 4.2 percent output increase and up to a 1.2 percent efficiency increase. GE’s 9E gas turbine operations with AGP upgrades have achieved up to a 6.2 percent output increase and up to a 1.7 percent efficiency increase.
