On 22 January, Siemens handed over the Fortuna CCGT plant to customer and operator Stadtwerke Düsseldorf AG. The plant, located in the Düsseldorf harbour area is based on a Siemens H-class gas turbine. With the handover came three new performance records, set during the test run before acceptance. The plant achieved a maximum electrical net output of 603.8 MW, which is a new high for a combined cycle plant of this type in a single-shaft configuration. A new world record of around 61.5% for net power generating efficiency was also achieved, beating Siemens' own record of 60.75% set in May 2011 at the Ulrich Hartmann power plant at Irsching in southern Germany.
In addition, the power plant can also deliver up to around 300 MW for the Düsseldorf district heating system - a record peak value for a power plant equipped with only one gas and steam turbine. At this value the plant's fuel utilisation efficiency goes up to 85%, while reducing CO2 emissions to 230 g/kWh.
The increase in the capacity and efficiency levels is the result of consistent ongoing developments, says Siemens, for example in the design of components, in the materials used, in the overall construction of the plant, and in the perfect co-operation of all plant components. "We optimised the power plant to enable it to be ideally positioned in one of the world's most demanding power markets" commented Willi Meixner, CEO of the Power and Gas division within Siemens AG.
The gas turbine can run at full load in less than 25 minutes after a hot start, enabling it to also be used as a backup for renewables-based power production. This flexibility supports the operator in efforts to achieve economical operations in a challenging environment for conventional power plants.
To date Siemens has 76 H-class gas turbines under contract worldwide, with 17 SGT-8000H units in commercial operation.
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