GE’s Power Services business has signed a milestone agreement with Edison, part of EDF Group and Italy’s second largest integrated energy company, to improve performance at its Candela combined cycle power plant in Puglia. The deal encompasses hardware upgrades to the existing GE 9F.03 gas turbine, increasing the plant output to 400 MW, and increasing total efficiency by around 1 per cent. GE will also install its predictive maintenance software and cybersecurity solution to improve reliability and security while decreasing O&M costs.
GE will install its Advanced Gas Path (AGP) technology, part of its Fleet360* platform of total plant solutions. The AGP will provide increased performance and operational flexibility, with higher output, efficiency, and availability.
Nicola Monti, Executive Vice President of Edison Power Asset & Engineering, said: “Aligning power generation capacity and transmission systems to meet energy demand while respecting pre-defined security and quality levels has become a critical issue in Italy and most liberalised electricity markets around the world. The new Capacity Market system, which Italy will implement in 2018, will reward utilities for their capacity availability. For this reason, it’s essential to continually improve our assets’ performance and availability with the latest technologies and digital solutions.”