One of Russia’s Most Efficient Power Plants Sets New Performance Standards with GE’s Advanced Combined-Cycle Technology

(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) February 7, 2012 - One of Russia’s most efficient and modern combined-cycle power stations, located at Shatura about 150 kilometers east of Moscow, recently completed its first year of operation and has set new output and efficiency standards for the site. Owned by Russian power producer E.ON Russia, the plant features GE’s (NYSE: GE) advanced 109FA combined-cycle technology.

The heart of the 109FA combined-cycle system is GE’s high efficiency Frame 9FA Gas Turbine, designed for power generators requiring large blocks of reliable power. GE has more than 2,300 gas turbines installed in combined-cycle plants around the world. The scope of GE’s contract for Shatura also included a steam turbine and a generator, a heat recovery steam generator and a distributed plant control system.

The Shatura site is the first combined-cycle (steam and gas) block of its kind in Russia. E.ON Russia estimates that this has increased site output by 115 million kilowatt hours because of the extension of the generating capacities of the station last year. Also, the plant has lower CO2 emissions than older and less efficient plants with a similar capacity.

This project was recognized by the United Nations as the first Russian carbon reduction joint implementation project under the Kyoto Protocol in October 2010. E.ON and GE also received a state award from the Russian Ministry of Energy for the best technology used in implementing the Shatura project in 2010. The new Shatura plant upgrades an existing facility at the site, which has been producing electricity since the mid-1920s.

E.ON also has signed a 12-year contractual service agreement (CSA). GE CSAs cover the supply of parts, repairs and field services for maintenance outages of gas turbines and generators. These long-term agreements provide customers with predictable maintenance costs while ensuring a steady flow of revenue from power plant operations. To date, GE has long-term service agreements including CSAs in place at more than 700 sites worldwide.

Cristiano Tortelli, president and CEO, GE Energy, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and CIS, said, “Shatura is one of several key projects that GE won in Russia. It demonstrates the clear progress of GE’s localization initiative in Russia. We are here to support the modernization of the Russian energy industry by providing some of the most advanced and efficient technologies available today.”

While Shatura marked the first installation of a GE 109FA combined-cycle system in Russia, the same technology has been applied for the Surgutskaya GRES-2 plant in Surgut, the largest power generation facility in Russia. Two new blocks of Surgutskaya GRES-2, inaugurated in July 2011, have two GE Frame 9FA Gas Turbines and also are achieving high performance in output, efficiency and emissions control.

GE Energy has been active in Russia since the early 1900s, supplying equipment and services to develop the country’s energy infrastructure. Today, more than 400 gas turbines, 65 steam turbines, 700 compressors and over 600 units of other equipment including air coolers, condensers, gas separators and pumps produced by GE Energy and GE Oil & Gas have been installed in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

In 2010, GE opened the Energy Technology Center, a service center that is located in the Kaluga Region and dedicated to supporting the company’s installed base of equipment. In September of 2011, GE signed a joint venture agreement with INTER RAO UES and UEC to localize production of GE’s 6FA Gas Turbines in Rybinsk, Russia. Since March 2008, GE’s MS5002E Gas Turbines have been manufactured, tested and sold in Russia as ‘LADOGA 32’ units under a technology transfer and localization licensing agreement between GE and REP Holding (REPH).

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