Japanese company Chubu Electric Power has awarded a contract to GE to upgrade eight gas turbines installed at the 2,380MW Joetsu combined-cycle power plant.

power plant

Under the agreement, GE’s Power Generation Services business will upgrade the eight 7F gas turbines of the thermal power station.

It 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.

Chubu Electric Power Thermal Power Department Power Generation Division general manager Akira Kuriyama said: "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.

"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."

The upgrade programme will help the plant in controlling the overall fuel and life cycle maintenance costs while contributing to the Japan’s effort to improve fuel efficiency of existing power plants.

Located in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, the Joetsu thermal power station primarily uses liquefied natural gas (LNG) as fuel.

Separately, Japan’s electric utility TEPCO also awarded a contract to GE to improve performance and reduce life cycle cost of the Yokohama thermal power station.

As part of the deal, GE will replace and upgrade the components of eight gas turbines ranging from 9FA.01 to 9FA.03 models at the power plant which will help in cutting down operational costs by reducing the length of time needed for service outages.

GE will replace gas turbines, combustion systems and control systems in order to increase power output by 7% per unit and overall power efficiency by 1%. The project is also expected to reduce annual fuel costs of the power plant by approximately $8m.


Image: The Joetsu thermal power station in Japan is primarily uses liquefied natural gas to generate power. Photo: courtesy of General Electric.