Now Available in 60 Hz, GE Offers Natural Gas Plant Aimed to Combine Efficiency & Adjustability

October 11th, 2012 by Nicholas Brown

GE is now offering a 60 Hz version of its FlexEfficiency 50 combined cycle natural gas power plant for use in the United States, Japan, and the Middle East — 60 Hz is the frequency of the power that these countries use. It was originally available in 50 Hz for countries that used 50 Hz power such as China, Europe, and others.

GE Gas Turbine

Last year, GE announced the invention of this combined cycle natural gas power plant, which is capable of adjusting its power production by an impressive 50 MW (50,000 kw) per minute, and it also maintained 60% efficiency when turned down to 40% of its generation capacity.

The power plants can also start in 30 minutes.

Natural gas power plants can either be quickly adjustable and inefficient, or efficient but slow to adjust. Unfortunately, a combination of both qualities was not an option until recently.

This type of power plant is important because it can efficiently and quickly back up wind farms and solar power stations by scaling up power production when wind speeds slow down or when the weather is cloudy or night is approaching.

How Combined Cycle Natural Gas Power Plants Work

Combined cycle natural gas power stations, in general, operate using both a natural gas–burning turbine and a steam turbine. The heat generated by the natural gas turbine is used to boil water, which then produces the steam required to drive the steam turbine, effectively putting otherwise wasted heat to use to generate even more electricity without using any additional fuel.

These are by far the most efficient fossil-fueled power plants in the world.

Source: Technology Review

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Tags: gas backup of wind farms, GE gas turbine, General Electric renewable energy, solar gas backup, United states clean energy intermittency

About the Author

Nicholas Brown writes on CleanTechnica, Gas2, Kleef&Co, and Green Building Elements. He has a keen interest in physics-intensive topics such as electricity generation, refrigeration and air conditioning technology, energy storage, and geography. His website is: Kompulsa.com.

Altair IV

Japan uses both, actually. The eastern half of the country is 50Hz, and the west is 60Hz, all @ 100 volts.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  Interesting..
- http://www.smartpowergeneration.com/ SmartPowerGeneration
  
  This was one of the big problems during the aftermath of the tsunami: they couldn’t compensate for lost electricity output in the East by ramping up production in the West, since there’s very little transmission capacity between the two systems.
  
  Best regards,
  Kimi Arima
  Wärtsilä Power Plants
  http://www.smartpowergeneration.com