A nnexs Intern ational Machinery Insurance Association

Four Seasons Hotel

20 September 1996

Advances in Gas Turbines For Power Generation

by

Kelth W. Johnson

Westlnghouse Power Generation

#1 • TITLE SLIDE

I would like to thank you this opportunity to talk to you about the role of gas turbines

in power generation.

My name is Kelth Johnson and I am the gas tu rbine product manager for

Westinghouse Power Generation based In Orlando Aorida. For the past few years I
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have spent a lot time talki ng to members of your Insurance Industry about gas

turbines for power generation. So this Is a very appropriate subject fo r this meeting.

I am going to review the role that gas turbines play In the global power generation

market for the next 10 years or so and then review briefly some of th e desig n features

which Westinghouse as a major designer and manufacturer of gas turbines

employees. The role that the Insurance industry plays In this will be discussed. I
will also show two examples of where major equipment failures have occurred and

show that with adequate spare parts and technical support available the actual

downtime of the equipment can be minimized, thus reducing the Impact on the

Insurance Industry.

#2 - 1995 GENERATION

Looking first at the current, 111115 , world power generation market, the total lnlltalled

capacity is about 3,075 GW. The major form of generation Is the traditi onal steam

turbine - generator which accounts for about 53.5% of this total. Hydro power

represents about 23% and gas turbines are currently at about 11.5% of the current

capacity, or 345 GW.

Moving to the forecasted new additions for the next ten years, out to the year 2005, thCl

total additions are about 1,000 GW of power, or about a 30 % Increase over todays

Installed capacity. These additions will be domi nated by steam turbin es and gas

turbine based power plants. The added gas turbine power plants represent about 35

% of the new additions or about 350 GW. A very significant part of the market

#4 - REGIONS OF WORLD

The overall rate of additional power trom gas turbines Is almost 5 % per year,

compound annual growth. This chart shows the principle regions of the world when.

the major markets will be. The largest single region Is Asia with the Americas both

North and South being the second iargest market Europe and the Mid-East and

Africa are the smallest regions for gas turb ine power generation growth.
#5 TYPES OF GENERATION

The characteristic of these new additions is Interesting. If we look at the type of

purchaser of the new power plants we see that in addition to the traditional utility type

of customer, the non-utillty customers, or IPP - Independent Power Producers· are

globally becoming a very significant player. About 37 % of new additions will be trem

theselPP customers. This means that as they are private concerns, the ability to

obtain Insurance coverage, particularly for Business Interruption or loss of earni ngs,

Is becoming of major importance. This is not the case with traditional utility

customers.

The major fuel source for the future Is going to be gas, either natural or LNG, being

almost 50% of new generation.

The type of power plant Is also changing to utilize the high efficiency of the gas

turbine based powe r plants. About 54 % of all new power generation will Involve the

gas turbine, either as a peaking or simple cycle plant or a base load combined cycle

type of plant.
#6 - ECONOPAC PLAN

To show you a few examples of these different types of power.plants lets first look at

the basic layout of a simple cycle, open cycle gas turbine power plant which would be

used mainly in peaking applications, that Is for up to about 2,000 hou rs per year of

operati on.

The plant consists of the basic gas turbine which drives an electrical generator for the

production of the electrical power. The plant has an Inlet air system drawing air from

the atmosphere where it is compressed before It Is mixed with the fuel supply and

combustion takes place. The high temperature products of combustion expand

through a power turbine and the hot exhaust gases are discharged Into the

atmosphere.

#7 - SIMPLE CYCLE - CAPEX3 ARGENTINA

This photo shows a typical simple cycle power plant where you can see the turbine

generator, Inlet air system and exhaust stack. This is a 125 MW power plant, and a

you can see is far more compact than a steam turbine plant of similar output. This

plant Is a 50 Hertz located In Argenti na.

I have mentioned combined cycles, which are the most efficient way to use the energy

source. This diagram shows the combined cycle process where the hot exhaust

gases Instead of being discharged to the atmosphere are fed Into a boiler wheni the

exhaust energy Is recovered to make steam. This steam then drives a steam tu rbine •

generator. Thus the effl ciencies of both the gas turbine cycle and the steam turbine

cycle are combined.

#9 - AUBURNDALE, FLORIDA

This photo shows a typical combined cycle plant of about 150 MW output at the

AubumdaJe site in Florida. It consists of on8gal turbine and one steam turbine.

Many variations of combined cycle configurations are available today by combining

multiple gas turbines with mUltiple steam turb ine generators. Plants can be any size

with examplel of up to 2,000 MW electrical power In operation.

Another Interesting application Is the barge mounted power plant. Here the actual

equipment both the gas turbine and steam turbine- generator are Installed on a barge

In a controlled environment of a shipyard. The power plant Is then transported, In thin

case by a special heavy 11ft cargo ship, to the customer site where It Is Installed either

a floating barge or is grounded.

#11 - CURVE OF POWER & HEAT RATE

I would now like to address the actual gas turbine technologies - where they have

been and where we see them going In the future. It I. the gal turbine technology

levels that are mainly of Interest to the Insurer. of such equipment. Over the past

25 years the technology has advanced In areas of material., cooling designs and ba.lc;

design analytical techniques. this has prodUced an ever Increasing output size of

power plant with ever Increasing efficlencle.. this trend will continue Into the future.
#12 - RATE OF NEW PRODUCTS

It Is Interesting to look at the rate that the gas turbine Industry has been Introducing

new products with new technologies over the recent pasl As this chart shows for

per iod of the 1980s, the average rate of Introduction by the Industry has been abou t 2

new products per year. However over the past 5 or 6 years there has been a

dramatic Increase In the industry for the introduction of new products In many cases

with advancing technologies. We have all parti cipated in this, the power generation

market has demanded It with the need for larger and more efficient forms of power

generation. This has also been reflected strongly in your Industry as you are ask :l
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to provide the coverage for these new products and technologies.

#13 - TECHNOLOGY CURVES

The main technologies which are associated with these new products Include the ever

Increasing firing temperature of the turbines. This trend Is continuing as new

products such as the US Govern ment sponsored development program call ed ATS -

Advanced Turbine Systems- progresses. Firi ng temperature have Increased from

about 1260 C In 19110 to 1510 C by the year 2000. The. Increased firing

temperatures 8I'e required for the continued Increase in gas turbine efficiency. Ever

more stringent emission reqUirements such as NOx- oxides of nitrogen Is a

continuing trend throughout the world.

#14 - DESIGN PROCESS

process be based upon a strong foundation and that you as an Industry are familiar

and comfortable with It The process starts with a totally Integrated process based

upon well proven design philosophies. this Includes not only the codes but must

also include design verification and risk analysis, operator training and the continues

follow of the power plants once they enter commercial operation.

#15 • 45 YEARS EXPERIENCE

Using my company, Westi nghouse, as an example, fundamental design features of OUI

turbines have been proven through oyer 45 years of operating experience. These

basic features are Included in all of our designs including the previ ously mentioned

new ATS turbine which will take us Into the'21st century. We strongly follow the

philosophy of evolution rather than revolution.

To highlight a few of these philosophies, especially those which have a direct bearing

on the Insurability of eqUipment, features such as designing for malntalnablllty Is

Important. We always consider the end user and the fact that he must have easy

maintenance of his equipment If he Is have a efficient operation.

117· DOWNTIME

Maintenance Is required and from time to time unforeleen Incldentl do happen with

rotating equipment. Therefore designing to minimize that actual downtime - or time

the eqUipment Is out of lervice for whatever reason I1 essential. As an example In

our turbines we can remove and replace any Indivi dual blade In either the compreslor

lectlon or the turbine section without having to remove the rotor from the casing.

this reduces the time and costs by not having to bring In cranel etc.

118· CONTAINMENT

We all know that accidents do happen from Ume to time, however through carefu l and

conservative design practices It I1 possible with a ruggedlzed and Integrated design to

contain any consequential damages that may occur. I wlll show you shortly

examples of how this il realized in actual cal es.

#19- 501 F EXPERIENCE

by the major manufac turers. The technology has generally been referred to In the

Industry as F technology - which actually Is tha designation given to specific firing

temperature class of gas turbines. There has been much pUblicity In the press and

within you industry of some of the operating experiences around the world with some

of these class of tUrbines. It is Important to state that non of the probl ems

experienced has been related to thll 10 called F firing temperature. The

Westlnghouse experience with this class of eqUipment Is clearly demonstrated here

with real world class records of availability of 94 % and reliability of 99 %

The very recent incident with a UHI 701 F in Thailand whic h you may have heard about

Is currently undergoing the engineering root caule analysis inclUding the dellgn

parameters, manufacturing process and operation al detalll. Thil will be concluded

shortly.
1#20 - DESIGN REVIEWS

We utilize in our design process the fully available experience from Industry experts ,

Including the Insurance Industry, to make sure that we aree Integrating everyones

possible experience. The lessons learned concept from our own experience and that

of customers and the Insurers we consider to be of paramount Importance.

I mentioned earlier that I would give a couple of examples of the con tainment of

damage and with the optimum organization and planning the customer down time and

as such the insurance lIabiHties can be minimized.

#21 - ROW 4 BLADE PHOTO

This first example Is one of our turbines which suffered a row 4 turbine blade failure.

This Is a fairly significant failure and was the fir st time It had been experienced on this

type of turbine.

#22- ROW 4 WORDS

The ruggedized design of the total plant Including the rotor dynamics, bearing

support structures, casings etc. together with a strongly dedicated engineering

support organization, this machine had the root cause diagno sed and modified

components reinstalled quickly. The total downtime that the machine was out of

service was about 14 days.

A further dramatic example was failure Initiating upstream of the turbine flow path

causing a Row 1 turbine blade failure where further downstream consequential

damage to the flow path components Is inevitable.

As the photo clearly shows there was considerable damage throughout the entire

turbin e f1owpath.

#24-ROW 1 WORDS

I do not Intend to discuss the details of How or Why this failure occurred . but use It

as another example of minimizing downtime by having spare parts available, this time

It was a total rotor 88sembly, together with the necessary support from the

manufacturers organization this turbin e was back In service In a remarkable 23 days.

The messages from this discussion and these examples are clear, the market

demands for more advanced products must be realistic, the manufacturers must

compl ete thorough component verification before entering commercial service, .

operators must be well trained and users must have the required spares parts

available to malntain a high availability. Here the Insurance companies can provide a

valuable Input by Insisting that their customers protect both thei r own Investm ent and

that of the Insurance companies.

#26 - TRENT JET ENGINE

Before concluding I would just like to change the product slightly trom the heavy duty

industrial turbine to the aeroderivatlve gas turbines. These are fully proven In

themselves and an accepted part of the power Industry. The latest aeroderlvatlve

turbine Is the RoUs-Royce Trent engine which Is derived from the aero jet engine In

airl ine service for just over one year on the Airbus A330 and the 808lng m aircraft.

This aero engine Is rated at over 90,000 pounds thrust. The Industrial aeroderlvatlve

version Is rated at over 51 MW for both 50 Hertz and 60 Hertz applications with simple

cycle efflciency of 42 %.

#27 - TRENT AERO v INDUSTRIAL

This shows the modifications required In goin g from the flying let engine at the upper

half. to the Industrial version shown at the lower section. The Trent Is a 3 • shaft
design, that Is three concentric shafts not connected together mechanically, but only

aerodynamically. The slow speed or low pressure shaft rotates at either 3,000 rpm or

3,600 rpm for 50 or 60 Hertz applications. The major changes are the removal of the

large fan at the front of the engine and replacing It with a new two stage compressor,

so that all of the airflow now passes through the turbine section. The other major

change Is a new combustion system to satisfy the tuel and emission requirements of

land based turbines. Virtu ally all other components are common with the Jet engine.

#28- TRENT ENGINE

The first of these Trent turbines will be shipping from the factory within the next few

days and will be in commercial operation by November of this year. With this being

the largest and most efficient power generadon turbine In service we are entering a

new and exciting market.

Ana/ly then to summarize everything that I have talked about Is the fact the market -

your customers and the manufacturers customers will continue to drive advancing

technologies which the manufacturers will Introduce. You aa Insurers are required le.

get a comfort level with these new technologies. In order to achieve this comfort

level It Is necessary for the turbine designers and the Insurers, as well a8 our mutual

customers to maintai n an Improved level of communication. At Westinghouse we

have been attempting to do this more in the past few years than maybe In earlier

times.

#30· BALANCE

Through this improved comm unications It Is going to allow a realistic balance to be

achieved between the advancing technologies and the need to maintain reliability and

thus good Insurability.

Thank you for your attention.