05.04.2011 GE Press-center
Using F-technology gas turbines recently upgraded by GE (NYSE: GE), Turkish company ENKA set a new standard for global power plant availability over the 12-month period ending November 2010. ENKA’s Adapazari and Gebze generating stations, with a total installed capacity of 2,320 MW powered by GE Frame 9FA+e gas turbines, achieved 99.8 percent availability, which is nearly 7 percent higher than the industry average* and a global record in F-class gas turbine technology.
The significant increase in availability allowed the Adapazari and Gebze plants to generate an additional 1.3 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity, enough to meet the needs of 300,000 households. The high availability also produced additional income for ENKA and avoided the need to build a new 150-megawatt power plant to meet growing electricity demands.
ENKA worked with GE Energy in 2008 and 2009 to implement an efficiency improvement upgrade called “Cooling Optimization Package (COP)” on the GE Frame 9FA gas turbines operating at both power plants. As a result of the COP implementation, gas turbine output increased by 2 percent and average combined-cycle efficiency reached 55.7 percent.
“These record levels of availability and generation are the result of the dedicated operations and maintenance (O&M) team, constant and careful monitoring of plant operations and full coordination and cooperation with the GE Energy Services team,” said Tahsin Kosem, O&M director for ENKA’s Adapazarı, Gebze and İzmir generating stations. “This upgrade is a great example of a manufacturer and a plant owner combining efforts to complete the upgrade package and installation in a very short time.”
The Adapazari and Gebze plants have been delivering continuous power to the Turkish grid at high levels of availability for the last eight years. Between 2002 and 2010, these two plants produced 9 percent of Turkey’s total generation.
The GE gas turbines at all of ENKA’s plants—Adapazari, Gebze and Izmir—operate under a GE 16-year contractual service agreement (CSA). GE’s CSAs are structured to provide customers with predictable maintenance costs, while ensuring high availability and a steady revenue flow from power plant operations. To date, GE has long-term service agreements in place at more than 700 sites worldwide.
“GE continues to make significant investments in service technologies, such as those implemented for ENKA, which are designed to maximize power plant efficiency, availability and overall performance,” said Yavuz Aydin, account director for GE Energy Services. “Our mission is to provide solutions that help our customers operate in a cleaner, smarter and more efficient way to meet today’s energy challenges.”
Turkey has a robust and growing economy, with its demand for electricity growing 6.5 percent annually over the last eight years. Increasing the efficiency of Turkey’s electricity production is a cornerstone of the government’s plans for continued economic growth and related societal improvements.
ENKA is the largest private electricity producer in Turkey and supplies 15 percent of the country’s electricity with three plants in Adapazari, Gebze and Izmir.
*Average global availability level for all F technology gas turbines over the last three years ran around 92 percent, according to ORAP data. The reported availability of GE’s F technology gas turbine is 1 percent higher than the industry average, at 93 percent.
About ENKA
ENKA Construction and Industry Co. Ltd. www.enka.com of Istanbul, is one of the top 50 International Contractors experienced in large volume infrastructure, energy and oil & gas projects. In addition to accomplishing engineering and construction projects, ENKA operates power plants in Turkey totaling 3,830 megawatts of output (also see www.enkapower.com)