Highest ever crowd visits PowerGen 2011 in Las Vegas

The recent Annual PowerGen conference in Las Vegas drew over 20,000 attendees – the highest number ever – indicating that market recovery is becoming a reality. The keynote featured David Walsh, Senior Vice President, Service & Manufacturing, at Mitsubishi Power Systems, America.

David Walsh told the audience that manufacturing of Mitsubishi's G class turbine would begin in the USA within two months. Mitsibishi now offers a 320 MW model and is involved in several large combined cycle plants utilizing these massive machines.

The conference also featured some big announcements from Pratt & Whitney, Wood Group GTS and Siemens. Pratt & Whitney announced the development of its latest aeroderivative industrial gas turbine, the FT4000 SWIFTPAC. The next generation gas turbine is based on PW4000 class turbofan engine, which has 26 million hours on more than 850 engines for the Airbus A330 and Boeing 777.

Designed for simple cycle, combined cycle or cogeneration and available in 60 and 120 MW power blocks, the FT4000 SWIFTPAC will provide the highest power output of any aeroderivative gas turbine generator package available in the market.

In November, the Wood Group GTS and Pratt & Whitney Power Systems (PWPS) entered into strategic alliance to jointly service the GE Frame 7FA industrial gas turbine aftermarket.