GE recently announced that it has secured a total of 16 orders for the HA series of gas turbines. According to a statement issued by the company, after three months of comprehensive validation testing at the GE test stand in the US city of Greenville, the 9HA.01 gas turbine performed even better than expected. GE received 15 such orders till the end of 2014.
(GE’s HA gas turbine)
Meanwhile, HA technology selections also increased from 45 to 53. The number of countries making HA selections has grown from nine to 11 and includes: the US, Japan, the UK, Brazil, South Korea, France, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Argentina and Egypt, the statement said. The final thermal mapping test was successfully completed on March 31.
Over 61 percent efficiency
The 9HA.01 gas turbine is the air-cooled evolution of GE’s H-class steam-cooled gas turbines, combining the robust experience, reliability, flexibility and availability of the F-class fleet with GE’s proven H-class technology. These turbines are said to provide a combination of the most output, highest efficiency and best operational flexibility and lead the industry in total life cycle value. The 9HA.01 gas turbine offers a net combined-cycle efficiency of more than 61 percent and leads the industry with reliable and cost-effective conversion of fuel to electricity compared with F-class technology.
Vic Abate, president and CEO, power generation products at GE Power & Water said the off-grid capabilities in the Greenville facility allowed the company to push the 9HA.01 beyond real-world conditions. “The HA technology has proven that it is ready to meet the growing global need for cleaner, more efficient, larger blocks of power.”
Abate said one unit in the Greenville test stand for 200 hours delivers more valuable information than 500 units in the field for a year. Three months of testing at the full-speed, full-load facility collected more than 5 terabytes of data, using some 5,000 sensors and instruments and capturing more than 8,000 data streams. “Simply put, the HA technology is transforming the industry. GE is investing $2 billion in this high-efficiency technology and customers worldwide are realizing that our investment can pay off for them and the people they serve by delivering more cost-effective power.”
