Upgrades - References

Many aged machines, after decades or more of useful life, are at or under the lower edge of the market efficiency, but often still in mechanical good condition. Based on the over 160,000 MW of installed equipment around the world in the last 60 years, Ansaldo Energia has developed various packages of Retrofits and Upgradings in order to extend and/or improve the plant operational life and to get the benefits of a virtually new turbine without the drawbacks of high investments, high technical risks and long realisa-tion times.
In this scenario, Repowering applications are quite typical: existing steam power plants are transformed into combined cycles, thus increasing the overall efficiency from less than 40% to 58%. Various possible Upgradings are also available for heavy duty gas turbines: e.g., turbine inlet temperature increase, output power increase, heat rate reduction, new burner installations (for lower NOx emissions and premix flow stability), extension of the mean time between overhauls to over 40,000 Equivalent Operating Hours, availability improvements and maintenance cost reductions. Rehabilitation and Revamping activities can vary significantly according to individual customers’ constraints, involved technologies, improvement objectives, etc.
In such an environment, the comprehensiveness of Ansaldo Energia’s capabilities are key to guarantee customers with swift, successful, all-inclusive rehabilitation services. When necessary, Ansaldo is capable of adopting original solutions, e.g.: identification of unique, suitable materials, consequent purchase or even possible in-house development when needed; specific design and realisation of dedicated solutions; cleaning cycles with working machines; spe-cialised start-up and operating tests; etc.

In some outstanding, complex cases, the equipment was put back into full operational service ahead of schedule by 30%, to the full satisfaction of the customers, thus mitigating production losses.
For an extensive reference list of Upgrades, please refer to the relevant add-on.