Siemens 9000HL starts up in Denver plant

Siemens Energy has successfully started up the first SGT6-9000HL gas turbine to kick off long-term testing phase in North Carolina.

The company started up the air-cooled, four-stage power turbine at Duke Energy’s Lincoln Combustion Turbine Station near Denver, N.C. It is in the beginning stages of a four-year testing period where Duke will operate the unit in simple-cycle mode to assess and modify new technologies in real time.

The HL-class’s engine architecture is composed of an air-cooled four-stage power turbine, hydraulic clearance optimization for higher efficiency at full load while facilitating immediate restart, a steel rotor design with Hirth serrations and a central single tie rod and a “can annular” combustion system.

The advanced can-annular combustion system with dual fuel capability allows for higher firing temperatures and more operational flexibility. Twenty-five premix burners improve the fuel/oxygen mixing, and the ACE combustion system allows for GT turn-down to 30 percent GT load.

During first fire, the SGT6-9000HL (405 MW) ramped up to a pre-determined test speed and the combustion system ignited.

Siemens delivered the 402-MW unit to Lincoln Station in November. The 340-ton turbine was transported from the company’s manufacturing plant in Charlotte, N.C.

The gas turbine’s ramp-up rate is about 85 MW per minute, maximizing operational flexibility and integration with fluctuating renewable generation. With increased inspection intervals of 33,000 equivalent base-hours and 1,250 equivalent starts, the unit will also provide outstanding reliability and lower life-cycle costs.

Duke Energy started construction on its Lincoln expansion project in September 2018.

Siemens’ new line of gas turbines can be adapted to burn 30-percent zero-carbon hydrogen in its fuel mix. SCR can reduce NOx to 2ppm.