GE Joins Spain's DF to Build Romanian CCGT
US engineering giant GE said June 27 it has been awarded an order by Spanish contractor Duro Felguera (DF) to provide turbines for a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant being built for its client, the Romanian state-run utility Romgaz. Spain's DF meanwhile had its news earlier this week about its Belgian LNG engineering contract.
In Romania, the €269mn turnkey contract to build the 430-MW gas-fired CCGT was awarded to DF in November 2016; work is expected to last 36 months until end-2019, from a start date of January 2017, at Iernut in the northern region of Transylvania.
GE did not disclose the value of its order for delivery and installation of four gas turbines, two steam turbines and four heat recovery steam generators, but said it is expected to increase the plant’s gross efficiency significantly – from about 38% to 56.42%. GE said the Iernut project is southeast Europe’s largest gas-fired project to be built for five years.
Romgaz is 70% state-owned, and GE noted that the Iernut project represents Romania’s largest public investment in conventional power in 20 years.
One day earlier, GE said June 26 it has been contracted to upgrade the RWE-owned Great Yarmouth 400-MW CCGT in eastern England, increasing plant efficiency by 2%. The upgrade, which will take place in 2Q 2018, will include a new gas turbine, plus a new steam turbine and generator. In the past decade, GE helped install RWE’s 2-GW Pembroke and 1.735-GW Staythorpe CCGTs also in the UK, while in the past year DF helped complete the 880-MW Carrington CCGT near Manchester for its client, the Irish state-owned generator ESB.
Raising the Roof in Zeebrugge
DF meanwhile announced June 26 that, as contractor for Fluxys on its upgrade of the Zeebrugge LNG receiving terminal, it successfully lifted the 93.5-metre-diameter dome of the latest LNG storage tank there, which with a weight of 1,300 metric tons is one of the largest of its type in the world. This is the fifth LNG storage tank at the terminal, as well as the largest.
Once the 180,000 m³ tank and a boil-off gas recovery system are commissioned, overall cryogenic storage at the Zeebrugge terminal will exceed half a million m³ LNG, making it one of the largest LNG terminals in Europe, said DF. It is working with Japanese partner IHI on installing the boil-off system.
The facility is being expanded to gear up for the start of trans-shipment of Yamal LNG cargoes later this year, and an expected pick-up in other activities such as LNG bunkering.
Mark Smedley