OREANDA-NEWS. September 29, 2015. Whether you’re strolling the boardwalk on the Jersey shore or visiting a temple in Seoul, you need reliable energy, and worldwide there’s a growing need for efficient, flexible and cost-effective power to meet increasing energy demands. For two new projects on opposite sides of the globe, two aging plants will be replaced with high-efficiency 7HA.02 gas turbines from GE (NYSE: GE). These projects represent the 18th and 19th orders for GE’s HA technology.

Flexible, cleaner power for New Jersey

After two winters of polar vortex events, residents in the northeastern United States depend on reliable energy to keep homes, schools, businesses, hospitals and other facilities warm. Concurrently, there’s a continued demand for cleaner, more cost-effective energy. To help meet expectations, PSEG Power, a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group, Inc., has ordered GE’s 7HA.02 gas turbine and associated equipment for its new Sewaren 7 combined-cycle power plant in New Jersey. The facility is expected to generate 540 megawatts, the equivalent power needed to supply more than 500,000 U.S. homes.

“Our new Sewaren 7 plant and the 7HA.02 gas turbine will help provide the market with more reliable and cleaner power at a lower cost of generation while also supporting the local economy with employment opportunities and tax revenues,” said Rich Lopriore, president of PSEG Fossil LLC, the business that operates PSEG Power's portfolio of natural gas, coal, and oil-fired electric generating units.

GE’s 7HA.02 will replace four steam turbines in operation for nearly 70 years. The new plant will be able to produce the same amount of power from half the amount of fuel compared to the existing plant.

During the polar vortex in the last two winters, nearly a quarter of PJM[1] installed capacity was unavailable due to natural gas constraints. To help provide flexible power when it’s needed, Sewaren 7 will feature the first dual-fuel 7HA.02 that will primarily run on natural gas, but also will be able to operate on ultra-low-sulfur distillate as a backup fuel when natural gas is curtailed for residential use or is otherwise unavailable.

HA technology will help lower the CO2 emission rate to almost half that of typical gas boilers and below the federal government’s final year 2030 Clean Power Plan target for New Jersey. This is equivalent to removing more than 150,000 cars from U.S. roads[2]. In addition, the unit’s ability to provide faster, more-efficient startups, as compared to previous technology, can help improve PSEG’s competitive position as a power supplier on the regional grid.

Reliable power for district heating in Korea

Korea’s GS Power is expanding its work with GE with an order for a second high-efficiency 7HA.02 gas turbine and associated clutched steam turbine as well as signing a long-term services agreement. Like the first order, announced in July 2015, this equipment will be used for a new combined-cycle power plant in Anyang, Korea, a suburb outside Seoul. The Anyang project will replace an aging gas-fired cogeneration plant, increasing GS Power’s plant efficiency and helping to meet growing energy needs.

Anyang experiences temperatures as low as zero degrees Fahrenheit in the winter. District heating 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.

“With GE as our partner, the benefits begin even before the power is online,” said Eung-Hwan Kim, vice president, GS Power. “The modular design of GE’s HA technology simplifies construction and reduces installation time. Given the growth in Anyang and our need for efficient energy, that’s a real advantage.”

In full power mode, the 7HA.02 achieves more than 61 percent efficiency. In district heating mode, it achieves more than 91 percent efficiency. The new plant will provide about twice the amount of power as the existing plant while using less fuel. It will have the capacity to generate 935 megawatts of power in combined-cycle mode, the equivalent output needed to power approximately 1,870,000 Korean homes.

“We are excited to work with PSEG and GS Power to help provide cleaner, more reliable, lower-cost energy to their customers,” said Monte Atwell, general manager, power generation product management at GE Power & Water. “GE configured these gas turbines for flexibility, and these projects demonstrate how important that is to customers worldwide in helping to meet their very specific energy needs.”

Along with 19 orders, HA technology has 68 technical selections[3] for projects in the U.S., Japan, UK, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea, France, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan.

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. 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.

For more information, visit the company's website at www.gepower.com and http://powergen.gepower.com.

Follow GE Power & Water and GE Power Generation on Twitter @GE_PowerWater and @ge_powergen.


[1] PJM is a regional transmission organization (RTO) part of the Eastern Interconnection grid that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia.

[2] Calculated based on typical gas boiler emissions of about 1,400 lbs CO2/MWh and new 7HA.02 plant emissions of approximately 800 lbs CO2/MWh. At 500 MWs of output, the new plant would emit roughly 200 tons CO2/hr and typical gas boiler roughly 350 tons/hr. The average U.S. car emits 5.2 tons of CO2 per year, so the reduction of 150 tons/hr is equivalent to removing 29 cars from the road. Assuming 60 percent capacity (5,256 baseload hours), this is the equivalent to removing more than 150,000 cars from U.S. roads.

[3] 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.