GE Energy’s first operational 9H gas turbine, located at Baglan Bay Power Station in South Wales, has passed the milestone of 24,000 hours of commercial operation.

The 480 MW Baglan plant has been generating since December 2003 with a 12-month rolling average availability exceeding 90% and a borescope inspection held in June 2007 indicated that all turbine components are able to continue operating until the next planned outage.

The North American launch site for the 60 Hz version of the technology is the Inland Empire Energy Center in southern California, where two 107H combined-cycle systems are scheduled to enter service in the summer of 2008. GE also is supplying three 50 Hz H System gas turbines to Tokyo Electric Power Company for the Futtsu Thermal Power Station in Japan. The 1,520 MW power plant is scheduled to enter commercial operation in 2008.

John Reinker, general manager of gas turbine and combined-cycle products for GE Energy said: “The operating experience of the Baglan plant has led to further technology improvements to be incorporated at the scheduled hot gas path maintenance outage.”