GE re-powering Bangladesh Project

GE, in a consortium with China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corp., has been awarded a US$117 million order from Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) for re-powering Unit 3 of the Ghorashal Power Plant, the largest power station in Bangladesh, reports the DGT Worldwide.

 

GE said this will be the first re-powering project for the country and will provide an increase in power generation capacity for Bangladesh by adding more than 200 MW of cleaner power to the national grid.

 

The project calls for re-powering the existing 210 MW Power Machines (LMZ 200) steam turbine— which is run by a gas-fired boiler— by transforming it into a combined-cycle power plant. The re-powering will be achieved by installing a gas turbine and a heat recovery steam generator to generate 416.3 MW in combined-cycle mode.

 

“GE is proud to be a partner in building and expanding the power generation infrastructure of Bangladesh and is committed to helping the country achieve its energy goals of providing electricity to all by 2021,” said Deepesh Nanda, CEO for GE’s Gas Power Systems business—GE South Asia. “With this project, GE’s suite of combined-cycle power plant solutions will breathe new life into the plant while helping to lower its carbon footprint substantially.”

 

As part of the overall re-powering scope, the station’s existing steam turbine will be retrofitted with GE’s advanced reaction design steam turbine high-pressure module, intermediate-pressure module and lower-pressure inner module to suit the new steam parameters. GE’s innovative solutions will help to substantially reduce carbon emissions from the power plant by enhancing the station’s overall efficiency of the plant to 54%.

 

GE said it gained global capabilities to service non-GE supplied equipment through its acquisition of Alstom Power’s thermal services business in November 2015. The company has installed more than 6 GW of re-powering projects worldwide. Currently, about 1.9 GW of Bangladesh’s installed power base is from GE, representing more than 30 gas turbines.