GE announced an innovative new power plant design on May 25 – one that offers what may well be an unprecedented ability to ramp power output up and down in response to fluctuations in output from wind and solar power. It could thereby enable the integration of more renewable resources into the power grid.
GE’s FlexEfficiency 50 Combined Cycle Power Plant is rated at 510 megawatts and offers fuel efficiency greater than 61 percent. The plant is the result of an investment of more than $500 million in research and development by GE.
While power plants today can provide flexibility or high efficiency, GE says, this power plant, offering “‘FlexEfficiency,” will deliver an unprecedented combination of both. The combination is essential if renewable power is going to cost-effectively integrate into power grids around the world on a large scale, GE says.
The plant will ramp up at a rate of more than 50 megawatts per minute, twice the rate of today’s industry benchmarks, by GE’s measure. Operational flexibility at these levels will enable utilities to deliver power quickly when it is needed and to ramp down when it is not, balancing the grid cost-effectively and helping to deploy additional renewable power resources like wind and solar.
“As our customers seek to increase their use of renewable energy, the challenge of grid stability sharpens. They are under added pressure to achieve higher levels of efficiency and lower emissions for natural gas power plants. The FlexEfficiency 50 plant creates an immense growth opportunity in a new segment for our gas turbine technology and is in lock-step with our commitment to build a cleaner energy future,” said Paul Browning, Vice President, thermal products for GE Power & Water. “For years we have been working to develop technology that can, in the same breath, deliver break-through efficiency and deal head-on with the challenge of grid variability caused by wind and solar. The need for combined flexibility and efficiency is even more pressing today as countries around the world establish new emissions standards.”
The launch follows GE’s recent announcements of the world’s most efficient wind turbine, the highest reported efficiency for thin film solar and $11 billion in acquisitions that strengthen a portfolio supporting natural gas and power transmission.
“Much of today’s power generation technology is serving yesterday’s power grid. Institutions and individuals everywhere are looking for cost-effective ways to use solar, wind and gas energy on a large scale. But they often assume that renewable energy can simply plug-in to the existing power grid,” said Steve Bolze, President and CEO of GE Power & Water. “Throughout GE, we have invested to strengthen our global portfolio with a view to delivering efficient power generation across clean energy technologies. We expect this FlexEfficiency breakthrough to help take advantage of abundant natural gas while we simultaneously carve a fresh path to accelerate wider adoption of renewable energy, all with less impact on natural resources.”
The plant is engineered for flexible operation by integrating a next-generation 9FB Gas Turbine that operates at 50 Hz, which is the power frequency that is most used in countries around the world; a 109D-14 Steam Turbine, which runs on the waste heat produced by the gas turbine; GE’s advanced W28 Generator; a Mark VIe integrated control system that links all of the technologies; and a heat recovery steam generator.
The International Energy Agency concluded in a report issued the day before that large shares of variable renewable energy are feasible as long as power systems and markets are properly configured so they can get the best use of their flexible resources.