Alstom has been awarded a contract worth over €20 million (A$30 million) by NewGen Power Kwinana Pty Ltd to upgrade the 320 MW combined-cycle Kwinana power station, south of Perth in Western Australia. The contract also incorporates an extension of the existing Long Term Parts Agreement (LTPA) to 2028.
The Alstom GT13E2 gas turbine will be retrofitted with the multi-mode MXL2 upgrade package, which is said to offer increased power output, substantial improvements to operational efficiency and enhanced availability through increased maintenance intervals.
The Kwinana power station, originally supplied and commissioned by Alstom in 2008, will be the first gas turbine unit in the region to be upgraded with this technology, creating a machine better able to compete in a market that has seen gas prices increase significantly since the plant was commissioned.
The GT13E2 MXL2 upgrade features Alstom's own online switching concept, allowing operators to choose between two operational modes - for maximum power and efficiency, or for extended lifetime. In Kwinana, the upgrade will deliver an additional 7 MW of power and up to 1% combined cycle plant efficiency increase whilst also extending the time between scheduled outages from 36 000 Equivalent Operating Hours (EOH) to 48 000 EOH.
The upgrade will take place in late 2015 during a scheduled C inspection of the turbine. Under the contract, Alstom will provide all engineering, supervisory and labour staff to complete the implementation and service outage, which includes inspections on the steam turbine and two generators.
The MXL2 upgrade technology was launched in 2012 and has since been applied in upgrades to Alstom's fleet of GT13E2 gas turbines in Europe and the Middle East. This will be the first upgrade of its type in the Asia-Pacific region.
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