LM6000 Turnkey Project in Panama Operationional Under Fast-Track Schedule
S&S Energy Products, a GE Power Systems business, announced that a GE LM6000 aeroderivative gas turbine-based power plant in Panama recently began commercial operation under a fast-track schedule. This marks the first project in Panama to use a GE LM aeroderivative gas turbine. SSEP worked with local Panamanian subcontractors to provide turnkey services so this simple-cycle power plant could begin operating within 90 days from the signing of the contract.
The 43-megawatt COPESA I power plant is owned by COPESA, a Panamanian independent power producer headquartered in Panama City, Panama. Liquid fuel is the primary fuel used to fire the LM6000 gas turbine. The plant is located on the outskirts of Panama City near the Tucumen Airport. Power is sold to the grid of IHRE (Instituto de Recursos Hydro Electricos), the Panamanian national utility.
"S&S Energy Products' standard package design incorporates a generator that is sized larger to accommodate full gas turbine power output over the broad ambient air temperature range, and to accommodate future ratings increases," said Ernesto Garcia, vice president of SSEP's Latin American Operations. "COPESA is expected to convert this unit to the more powerful LM6000 SPRINT™ (SPRay INTercooling) system in the near future. The larger generator enables this conversion to take place without any change of major components in the existing package." The LM6000 gas turbine for the COPESA site was manufactured by GE Industrial AeroDerivative Gas Turbines (GE-IAD) at its Evendale, OH facility. The gas turbine-generator set was full-load tested by SSEP prior to shipment from its Houston, TX manufacturing facility.
SPRINT Technology
The SPRINT cooling lowers the high-pressure compressor inlet temperature, which in turn effectively lowers the compressor discharge temperature. The system consists of an interstage mist injection system which cools the low pressure booster discharge air. Water is injected into the airflow path through a series of 24 air-assisted spray injection nozzles located in the engine front frame. Air for the system is supplied from the engine's 8th stage customer bleed extraction port.
By using the SPRINT spray intercooling system, the compressor pressure ratio can be increased and additional air can be directed through the compressor to increase the gas turbine's output characteristics.
Two SPRINT LM6000s began commercial operation in early June 1998 at two separate power plants owned by Southern Electric Power Generation Ltd., United Kingdom.
The first SPRINT installation in the United States is slated for commercial start-up in the summer of 1999 at the Lubbock Power & Light Massengale Station in Lubbock, TX. The LM6000 will be used in combined cycle configuration with an existing 22 megawatt steam turbine-generator. The repowered combined cycle plant will have an output of 65 megawatts. The plant's heat rate is expected to decrease approximately 50% with the addition of the SPRINT unit.
For More information, contact Lela R. Katzman, Tel: 518-785-4416, Fax: 518-785-9121. e-mail: fsclela@albany.net