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GE Upgrades to UK Power Plant to Help Increase the Site’s Energy Output and Competitiveness While Reducing Costs

  • Upgrades to Sutton Bridge Power Station to Increase Flexibility in Responding to Regional Power Demands

  • The Technology is Expected to Boost the Plant’s Performance Including a 3.4 Percent Increase in Megawatt Output and a 1 Percent Efficiency Improvement While Reducing Its Startup Times

  • First 9FA Advanced Gas Path Upgrade in the UK

LINCOLNSHIRE, U.K.—August 11, 2015—Calon Energy has selected GE (NYSE: GE) to upgrade its Sutton Bridge Power Station in Lincolnshire with a broad range of hardware and software technologies to increase power production, improve efficiency and flexibility and reduce its operating costs. The 800-megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plant provides electricity to the East Anglian region of the United Kingdom, and the upgrades will help increase the competitiveness of the plant in the country’s challenging power industry.

Sutton Bridge’s two existing GE 9FA gas turbines and a D-11 steam turbine will be upgraded with multiple applications from the OpFlex* controls software suite, a Dry Low NOx 2.6+ combustor and Advanced Gas Path (AGP) technology solutions. The project represents the first 9FA AGP upgrade in the U.K. These enhancements will help the power station become a far more flexible, reliable and efficient plant able to meet the demands of the U.K.’s power needs today while also being able to respond to the requirements of the future with the introduction of the U.K. Power Market Balancing Mechanism. Sutton Bridge also will benefit from additional availability to generate power with extended periods between planned outages with these upgrade solutions. The project is expected to begin in mid-2016 and be completed some months later.

“This is a significant investment by Calon Energy, particularly in the current economic,” said Kevin McCullough, chief executive, Calon Energy. “We play an important role by providing energy at peak times and cover renewable generation intermittencies.”

The Sutton Bridge Power Station is adjacent to the River Nene and is located approximately 2 miles from the village of Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire. GE’s upgrade package will include OpFlex Enhanced Transient Stability, AutoTune, Variable Load Path, Cold-Day Performance, Extended Turndown, Variable Inlet Bleed Heat and Variable Airflow and Steam Turbine Agility applications, steam turbine thermal blankets for improved cold-start capability and upgrades to balance-of-plant equipment to allow for additional performance improvement.

McCullough added, “Along with other combined-cycle gas turbine plants in the U.K., Sutton Bridge has competed with subsidized renewables, cheap coal and high gas prices. These upgrades will make the plant more competitive and, just as importantly, more flexible. GE originally built the plant. This collaboration demonstrates the confidence we have in their capabilities, and we are very pleased to continue our relationship with them.”

GE has managed the operation and maintenance (O&M) of the Sutton Bridge Power Station since 2013 under a multiyear services agreement. Currently, GE has more than 30 O&M people on-site managing the facility on behalf of Calon.

With more than 25 years of experience in O&M of power plants, GE currently manages more than 11 gigawatts at 22 sites in 11 countries. GE’s global resources and fleet expertise enable it to provide complete plant services and management, along with sharing best practices and technical knowledge with power plant owners.

About Calon Energy

Calon Energy is able to provide up to 6 percent of the U.K.’s average energy demand and plays an important role in providing energy at peak times. Calon Energy also owns two other gas-fired power stations: the Baglan Bay Power Station near Port Talbot in South Wales with a 525 MW capacity and a thermal efficiency of 55 percent and the Severn Power Station near Newport, South Wales with a 832 MW capacity and a thermal efficiency of 58 percent.

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) imagines things others don’t, builds things others can’t and delivers outcomes that make the world work better. GE brings together the physical and digital worlds in ways no other company can. In its labs and factories and on the ground with customers, GE is inventing the next industrial era to move, power, build and cure the world. www.ge.com

About GE Power & Water

GE Power & Water provides customers with a broad array of power generation, energy delivery and water process technologies to solve their challenges locally. Power & Water works in all areas of the energy industry including renewable resources such as wind and solar, biogas and alternative fuels; and coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy. The business also develops advanced technologies to help solve the world’s most complex challenges related to water availability and quality. Power & Water’s six business units include Distributed Power, Nuclear Energy, Power Generation Products, Power Generation Services, Renewable Energy and Water & Process Technologies. Headquartered in Schenectady, N.Y., Power & Water is GE’s largest industrial business.

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