GE Will Supply ALSTOM With Lm6000 Turbine for Boral Energy
Lincoln, England's ALSTOM Gas Turbines has put in an order with GE Industrial AeroDerivative Gas Turbines (GE-IAD) to supply a GE LM6000 aeroderivative gas turbine unit for use in Australia. The LM6000 will be used at a simple-cycle power plant to neighbor Boral Energy's Ladbroke Grove gas plant, near Adelaide, Australia.
The gas turbine-generator set will be installed at the Ladbroke Grove site in the fall of 1999. The unit is expected to begin commercial operation in January 2000, in time for the peak generating period of the Australian summer. Boral Energy's 43-megawatt plant will produce electricity that will be sold to the Australian National Electricity Market.
Boral Energy is the only integrated explorer, producer and distributor of natural gas in Australia. The company has also entered the electricity market and is becoming a significant participant in Australia's national electricity market as a generator, trader and retailer.
The LM6000 will use natural gas for start-up and then switch to the medium BTU fuel. The turbine supplied to ALSTOM will be the first GE LM6000 to be equipped with modified fuel nozzles so that it can burn medium BTU fuel. This fuel, which is available at the Ladbroke Grove site, has a lower heating value of about 500 Btu/scf.
GE's new fuel system design incorporates features that allow for the use of fuels with a wide range of characteristics, as well as an option for combustor water injection, if necessary, for emissions reduction. This important innovation provides reliable start-up capabilities as well as NOx control.
The LM6000 will be manufactured by GE-IAD at its Evendale, OH facility. ALSTOM will install the gas turbine into a power generation package at its Lincoln facility. The turbine and package design allows for the use of a wide variety of fuels such as those from large gas fields to produce power in an economical manner.
Currently there are 10 GE LM6000 aeroderivative gas turbines operating or slated for service in various power generation applications throughout Australia.