OREANDA-NEWS. July 17, 2015. In the peak of summer, Korea’s GS Power is preparing for winter. The company has selected GE’s (NYSE: GE) high efficiency 7HA.02 gas turbine, and associated clutched steam turbine, for a new combined-cycle power plant in Anyang, Korea. This marks the 17th order for GE’s HA gas turbine technology, which also celebrates its first commercial shipment to ?lectricit? de France this month, and the first U.S. groundbreaking for two future Exelon plants in Texas.

District Heating for Korea
Anyang, a suburb outside of Seoul, experiences temperatures as low as -18 degrees Celsius, or zero degrees Fahrenheit, in the winter months. District heating, a network that distributes centralized heat to a concentrated population, helps mitigate these cold conditions and is GS Power’s primary application for the HA technology in Korea. One hundred percent of the steam generated by the new plant has the potential to be used for district heating in winter months.

“GE’s 7HA technology has the largest steam exhaust energy output in the world, which will help us maximize our district heating needs in Anyang,” said Eung-Hwan Kim, Vice President, GS Power. “This output is a huge advantage for our customers, especially as we use this technology to replace the 23 year old aging plant.”

GE’s 7HA.02 gas turbine is the world’s largest and most-efficient 60-hertz gas turbine. In full power mode, it achieves more than 61% efficiency and in district heating mode it achieves more than 91% efficiency. The plant will have the capacity to generate 935 megawatts of power in combined cycle mode, the equivalent output needed to power 900,000 Korean homes.

“We’re proud to work with GS Power to help serve Korea’s district heating need as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible,” says Vic Abate, president & CEO, power generation products at GE Power & Water. “As the world’s largest and most efficient gas turbine, our HA technology is flexible to help serve very specific needs, like district heating in Korea, around the world.”

First Commercial Shipment and U.S. Site Ground Breaking
On June 29, GE shipped its first commercial HA gas turbine, a 9HA.01, to national French utility ?lectricit? de France (EDF). The voyage from GE’s facility in Belfort, France to EDF’s future site in Bouchain, France, spans just over 330 miles. During this journey, the entire convoy – which is 109 meters long (358 feet), 6.65 meters wide (22 feet) and 5.7 meters high (19 feet) – must navigate roads, railroads and bridges to deliver the unit safely and on time to EDF. Read more about the journey here.

Concurrently, last week GE joined Exelon in Texas to celebrate the groundbreakings for the first HA power plants in the United States.  Exelon will add more than 2,000 megawatts of capacity to the Texas grid using four GE 7HA.02 gas turbines, and associated steam turbines and generators. The combined-cycle gas turbine plants will be built at Exelon’s existing Wolf Hollow site, near Dallas, and Colorado Bend site, near Houston.

With the GS Power project, 17 HA units have been ordered and 61 HA units have been technically selected* by customers around the world. In addition to Korea, GE’s H-class technology has been embraced by customers in Japan, the United Kingdom, Brazil, the United States, France, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Egypt and Argentina.

GE’s latest HA gas turbines build off the learnings of both its operating fleet of more than 4,500 air-cooled heavy-duty gas turbines with accumulated operation of more than 180 million hours and its decade of steam-cooled H-class gas turbine operating experience. GE technology advancements are fueled through the long history of its Aviation business and innovations from its Global Research Center.

*A technical selection is one of the first steps in developing a new power plant. It means that if the power plant is constructed and commissioned, it will use GE gas turbines. Following technical selection, a developer will proceed with securing financing, permitting and more.

About GS Power
GS Power Co., Ltd., together with its affiliates, is a leading green energy company involved in power generation and district heating & cooling water products and services. The company is engaged in electricity power generation business through operation of the combined heat and power generation plants in South Korea. It also provides heating and cooling energy to the apartments, shops, offices, and other buildings; and energy saving solutions. In addition, it is involved in the absorption air-conditioners business to public apartments and commercial buildings. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Anyang, South Korea.

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.