GE (NYSE: GE) today announced that GE has been chosen to upgrade the efficiency and availability of eight GE gas turbines at the Japanese utility’s Joetsu Thermal Power Station. Under terms of the agreement, GE’s Power Generation Services business will provide three GE Power FlexEfficiency* upgrade offerings, including a Dry Low NOx 2.6 (DLN2.6) combustor, an OpFlex* gas turbine controls technology package and its Advanced Gas Path (AGP) solution to upgrade eight 7F gas turbines that are powering Chubu’s 2,380-megawatt combined-cycle power plant.
“GE’s proven AGP solution gives us the ability to improve thermal efficiency by 0.7 percent and reduce the fuel costs and CO2 emissions of our Joetsu Thermal Power Station,” said Chubu Electric Power’s Akira Kuriyama, Executive Officer, General Manager of Thermal Power Department Power Generation Division. “In addition, the AGP solution contributes to improved durability of the equipment itself and extends maintenance intervals from three years to four years, which helps to improve our competitiveness by reducing operational costs and shortening downtime for maintenance.”
“We are pleased to be selected by Chubu Electric to provide our Advanced Gas Path solution and additional upgrade services for their Joetsu Thermal Power Station uprate project,” said Masayuki Oya, General Manager—Asia Pacific for Power Generation Services. “This agreement marks the first AGP project for GE in Japan and will serve as an important demonstration to show other power producers in Japan how they can implement similar AGP projects to improve the long-term efficiency of their existing power plants.”
Chubu opted for GE’s AGP solution to more effectively control the station’s overall fuel and life cycle maintenance costs. In addition, Chubu also is expecting to see enhanced output during future summer seasons and to extend time between maintenance outages to 32,000 hours as a result of the AGP solution and additional upgrades to the gas turbine combustion system and controls.
Joetsu Thermal Power Station, which began commercial operation in multiple phases between 2012 and 2014 as one of the leading higher-efficiency thermal power plants on Japan’s Honshu Island. The station, primarily fueled by liquefied natural gas (LNG), is located in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, facing the Sea of Japan.
The GE Power FlexEfficiency portfolio delivers a suite of hardware and software blended solutions that enable customers to unleash the full performance and long-term value of existing GE F-class gas turbine assets. It is a customized upgrade solution that utilizes proven technologies that are designed to add more functionality, flexibility and performance to GE gas turbines. GE Power FlexEfficiency includes AGP, OpFlex and DLN technologies.