17.05.2010 Press-center of Siemens
Irsching 5 combined cycle power plant near Ingolstadt sets new standards
Erlangen, Germany, on May 17, 2010, after around two years of construction, the Irsching 5 combined cycle power plant near Ingolstadt was put into operation in an official ceremony. The owner of the new plant is GKI (Gemeinschaftskraftwerke Irsching GmbH), a project company consisting of E.ON Kraftwerke GmbH, N-ERGIE AG, Mainova AG and HEAG Südhessische Energie AG. E.ON Kraftwerke is responsible for plant operation. Siemens built the 847 megawatt (net) plant as a turn-key project. “With its high efficiency level, and the associated extremely low emissions, along with its short startup times, this plant sets new standards for this performance class,” said Michael Suess, CEO of the Fossil Power Generation Division of Siemens Energy.
This new natural-gas-fired plant is equipped with two SGT5-4000F gas turbines and one SST5-5000 steam turbine, three hydrogen-cooled generators and with electrical systems and the innovative SPPA-T3000 I&C system from Siemens. Thanks to its most advanced F-class gas turbine technology and the quadruple-flow low-pressure steam turbine, this plant now achieves an efficiency level of more than 59.5 percent, thus minimizing its CO2 emissions. The state-of-the-art burner technology used at the plant also keeps nitrogen oxide emissions at an extremely low level (<15 ppm). Irsching 5 is designed for 250 starts annually. The plant reaches its full output in only 30 to 40 minutes to account for the more stringent grid requirements with regard to the integration of wind power.
The combined cycle power plants are part of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2009, revenue from the Portfolio totaled about EUR23 billion, making Siemens the world’s largest supplier of ecofriendly technologies. In the same period, the company’s products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their CO2 emissions by 210 million tons. This amount equals the combined annual CO2 emissions of New York, Tokyo, London and Berlin.