GE Completes First Major Chinese Inspection Project Since COVID Outbreak

GE said it had safely and successfully completed its first major inspection project in China since the COVID-19 outbreak.

The project at Shenzhen Baochang Power Supply’s Baochang Power Plant in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, addressed the aging parts of the two gas turbine units, which power the 360 MW plant.

“The COVID-19 outbreak brought unexpected and unprecedented difficulties for our inspection project, and GE’s ability to do it safely and in a timely manner was critical to the success of the project,” said Xu Yong, general manager, Shenzhen Baochang Power Plant Co., Ltd. “Additionally, our 17-year experience with GE’s proven technology and our past experience with its top-level and professional service through the Advanced Gas Path inspection and upgrade conducted on our last unit made them the best choice to meet our requirements.”

Comprehensive inspection

This modernization involved a lot of lifting work and represents one of the most complex and comprehensive inspection and repair projects for GE’s 9E gas turbine in China, GE said. It also is the most complete inspection of the gas turbine, through overhaul and necessary replacement for all detachable parts, which made up more than 300 items — including the large axial, rotor, hot gas path, compressor, combustion, air inlet system and other parts of the gas turbine.

The initial schedule was for 35 days but was extended to 69 days because of the customer’s expanded work scope and the 14-day quarantine before the project commenced. Engineers from GE and FieldCore — the field services execution team owned by GE to enhance GE’s ability to deliver more productive and reliable results for GE’s customers — quickly implemented measures to ensure the safe and steady operation of the outage and delivered more than one day ahead of schedule

“This upgrade was important to ensure the Baochang Power Plant was back up and running as quickly as possible, and the collaboration with Shenzhen Baochang was crucial to monitor and cope with the fast-moving situation,” said Xu Xin, China OTR leader, GE Gas Power. “We are committed to taking all reasonable steps to mitigate any disruption to our delivery schedules, subject to our top priority — the health and safety of our employees and suppliers. During the most severe period of the pandemic, our 21 on-site engineers from all different provinces and cities volunteered to go to the site and actively quarantine while coordinating with local governments, solving logistical problems and guaranteeing the end result. Their excellent professionalism and dedication to safety and seamless cooperation of all teams were crucial to the success of the project, which was completed ahead of schedule.”

Largest installed base for 9E turbine

In Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, GE has the largest installed base for the 9E gas turbine in China. In April 2019, GE announced that it had successfully completed the world’s first installation of its DLN1.0+ with Ultra Low NOx combustion upgrade on nine GE 9E gas turbines at five power generation enterprises to help improve air quality and public health throughout China by reducing nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.

This year, GE’s 9E gas turbine fleet celebrates 40 years of operations. From desert climates to the tropics to the arctic cold, the rugged 9E.03 heavy-duty gas turbine provides essential power and performs in a vast number of duty cycles and applications. 9E turbines can use more than 52 types of fuel— almost the entire fuel spectrum—and can even switch fuels while running under full load. The latest innovation with the 9E gas turbine new unit platform, the 9E.04, features a new 4-stage turbine module for enhanced performance. This solution increases output – delivering incremental revenue generation; delivers higher efficiency – equating to millions of dollars in customer fuel savings; and offers a reduction in operating costs driven by extended planned maintenance intervals.