Electricite de France (EDF), one of the world’s largest utilities, and GE plan to jointly develop and install the world’s first FlexEfficiency* 50 Combined Cycle Power plant to be connected to a national grid. The move marks the latest development in a 40-year strategic relationship between EDF and GE.
The FlexEfficiency* 50 plant being co-developed by EDF and GE will showcase an unprecedented combination of flexibility and efficiency with low emissions. The new combined-cycle plant will be located at Bouchain, an existing EDF power plant site in northern France, and will produce 510 megawatts, enough electricity for 600,000 French households. The FlexEfficiency 50 plant is the result of GE’s $500 million investment in research and development to deliver cleaner and more efficient energy.
The plant is expected to achieve greater than 61 percent efficiency at base load, which will conserve natural gas and reduce the production of greenhouse gases. Its operating flexibility will enable the plant to respond quickly to fluctuations in grid demand, paving the way for greater use of renewable resources such as wind and solar.
GE’s FlexEfficiency 50 plant is an integrated, highly efficient system that includes a number of key components – a next-generation 9FB Gas Turbine, a 109D-14 Steam Turbine that runs on the waste heat produced by the gas turbine, an advanced W28 Generator, a Mark* Vle control system that links all of the technologies and a heat recovery steam generator.
GE introduced its FlexEfficiency 50 plant earlier this year as the flagship product of its FlexEfficiency portfolio, which now includes three ecomagination-qualified power technologies, including the world’s first Integrated Renewables Combined-Cycle Power Plant and the FlexAero LM6000-PH. GE has since announced that Turkish project developer MetCap had selected the technology for the world’s first integrated renewables combined-cycle power plant, to be built in Karaman, Turkey. In addition, GE commercial partners Harbin Electric in China and Toshiba Electric in Japan also have announced plans to introduce the product.