Tuxpan upgraded
17 October 2018Considered something of a “lighthouse project” for its Cross-Fleet initiative – which aims to expand service and upgrade offerings to the gas turbines of other OEMs (see Modern Power Systems, July 2018, pp 12-16) – GE Power Services has reported what it describes as “industry-leading results” for its gas turbine upgrade project at the Fuerza y Energía de Tuxpan facility in Veracruz, Mexico. The project resulted in an output increase of 9.2% and a 2.9% efficiency improvement on one of the Tuxpan gas turbines – better than promised – while extending maintenance intervals to 32 000 hours for the 450 MW power plant.
The facility, which consists of two M501F gas turbines and two steam turbines, is owned by Global Power Generation (GPG), the international power generation subsidiary of Naturgy and the Kuwait Investment Authority.
GE completed the work as part of a 12-year agreement, and can be seen as a further example of Fleet360*, which aims to offer plant owners “tailored solutions for all power generation equipment, regardless of whether the components were originally supplied by GE or another equipment manufacturer.” Fernando Ramos, chief operating officer of GPG, said: “Having a services provider that can address plant- level improvements is important. One of our biggest concerns when upgrading a gas turbine is ensuring the rest of the plant can support any changes in performance.”
The upgrades at Tuxpan included new gas turbine hardware infused with GE’s patented materials technology and improved engine component architecture. GE also serviced Tuxpan’s steam turbines, uprated its generator systems and installed a combustion dynamics monitoring system to help the site identify impending combustion issues before they occur.
The completion of the project at Tuxpan marks the latest of 12 completed outages across varying scopes and engine types since the inception of the Cross-Fleet initiative.
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