Ansaldo To Deliver H-Class Gas Turbine

Ansaldo Energia has signed a new contract with Italian electricity operator Edison for a combined-cycle power plant in Marghera Levante, in Northern Italy.

The plant will include a GT36 gas turbine by Ansaldo, a 250 MWe steam turbine, a heat recovery steam generator and a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system for the treatment of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from the exhaust gases.

The GT36 gas turbine is a development Ansaldo carried out with the former Alstom advanced heavy-duty gas turbine business, which Ansaldo Energia acquired from General Electric in 2016 along with the latest ratings of the GT26 and GT36 heavy duty gas turbines. Ansaldo now holds intellectual property rights for the GT26 and GT36 turbines, existing upgrades and pipeline technology for future upgrades, and service agreements for 34 GT26 turbines already installed. The GT36 is assembled at Ansaldo Energia’s new plant in Cornigliano, Genoa, Italy.

Test results during the validation of the GT36 showed a power output of 538 MW and 42.8% efficiency for the 50 Hz version (for the 60 Hz: power output is 369 MW and efficiency is 42.3%). In combined cycle operation, the net efficiency reaches 62.8% for the 50 Hz.

The new combined-cycle plant will reach a total electric capacity of 780 MW with 63% efficiency, according to Ansaldo.

The project with Edison in Marghera Levante is actually an upgrade of an existing plant worth an investment of €300 million, with 600 people employed on site for a duration of three years. The new power island will replace two units currently in operation: one will be dismantled, while the other one will be kept as a reserve for maintenance operations.

Ansaldo reported that the upgrade will also rationalize the plant’s structure, with a reduction of the number of chimneys from five to three.

“The signed contract will have at least three major benefits”, said Giuseppe Zampini, chief executive officer of Ansaldo Energia. “The first is obviously commercial. This is a significant commission in terms of volume and commitment. The second is technological: thanks to the faith that Edison has placed in us, we will be constructing the largest gas turbine in our company’s product portfolio. The third is that we will be returning to work in Italy after at least a decade during which the vast majority of our business was conducted abroad.”

Edison’s production park in Italy consists of 153 plants with an overall capacity of 6.1 GW. Around 80% of the electricity that Edison produced in 2018 was generated by 14 combined-cycle gas-powered plants for an installed capacity of 4.6 GW.