Turn-Down Capability of Ansaldo Energia's AE94.3A.

At an ever-faster pace, market's requirements for operational flexibility and turn-down capabilities are fundamental for heavy-duty gas turbines. Gas turbine energy plants require the lowest minimum environmental load (MEL) for times when the power request is mainly covered by renewable sources and, however, need to promptly respond to green energy shortages. Ansaldo Energia has addressed such requirements overall its gas turbine portfolio, recently including GT26, as discussed in GT2021-59457. This paper addresses the MEL reduction for AE94.3A via a modular upgrade package intended for the 110+ units Service fleet. To accomplish that, several features were designed and tested including variable inlet guide vanes (VIGV) extra-closure, air bypass through compressor blow-off lines, and extended use of anti-ice air recirculation. None of these require major hardware changes but only upgrades within a normal service outage, together with minor control system adaptations. The wide-ranging technical challenges attached to the MEL reduction features are discussed. Validation on field via special instrumentation focused on compressor, secondary air system (SAS), and turbine for several engines is also presented. The achieved minimum environmental load reduction is shown and its potential discussed together with some features already in place, such as the use of CO catalyzer or the regulation of control valves put on external cooling lines. The readiness and performance level of this MEL upgrade package, already in operation on several power plants, is here demonstrated. This makes the AE94.3A gas turbine more flexible toward current and future market requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]