The Base load is dead so it's time to park your engines

Power giant Alstom is staking its future range of engines on the belief that operators will need more flexibility in the operation of their power plants and has responded with a new rating of KA26 engines with some rather interesting characteristics.

Key among this is the ability of these new plants to be effectively “parked”, running at just 20 % output, which fits in with the needs of small grids or grids with high amounts of renewable power. “Alstom is focusing specifically on part load,” said Dr Michael Ladwig, Director Marketing & Product Management.

“There is no base load any more. Electricity grids want to have reserve capacity to provide additional energy needed when the wind stops or the sun stops shining. So you can now see big fluctuations in demand, so the efficiency and emissions at part load is very important for power plants,” he added.
 

Unlike many of its competitors, Alstom produces end to end power plants and not just some components. “Our target is not only to have the best gas turbine in the world, it is to have the best gas power plant in the world, so all our technology is in house and it all works together t optimize operations. Alstom has launched a next generation KA26 which can generate 500 MW total power watt and 61 % energy efficiency at full load.
 

“ We can provide 350 MW within 15 minutes for times when sudden load changes require the immediate response of a power plant. All the new Alstom power plants are carbon capture ready and designed to be retrofitted with CCS solutions when they become ready.”
 

Speaking in PowerGen Asia 2011, Astom was launching its KA26, which use sequential combustion which can give a partly loaded engine a better performance profile in terms of energy efficiency and carbon outputs. “There is nearly the same efficiency between 100 % t 80 % load, which is the sweet spot a lot of plant operators are playing in,” added Dr Ladwig.
 

It was two years ago that Alstom began testing the concept of “parking” a power plant, where the GT26 turbine can be run at just a 20 % load. Alstom Vice president asia pacific Wouter Van Wersch added:“Being based in Singapore I can tell you this is a key part. Other companies can only run a plant at 40 to 60 % load – that’s the minimum stable load. Our plants can run at below 20 % and essentially be parked but ramp up quickly when needed.”
 

Dr Ladwig added: “The idea of parking a plant is becoming more important where the intermittency of electricity supply is given. We have recently had a customer in Italy where there is a small grid and relatively a lot of wind power where the operator was keen on getting this feature into it and now instead of shutting down he us parking overnight so there is high quality in the grid at all time. So in small grids where the fluctuation and the quality of electricity and spinning reserve is become more and more important.”

In another sports car parallel, The GT26 can also be run in two modes – one essentially hard and fast and the other which will minimize times between inspections, adding one more year from 3.5 years to 4.5 years.