Alstom's Repowering Project to Give Dutch Plant 58% Efficiency

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--France's Alstom (EPA:ALO) has signed contracts to repower the configuration of one Essent N.V. (Arnhem, The Netherlands) unit at the Claus power plant and to build another unit at the site in Maasbracht in the southeastern part of the country. The contracts include the Claus B unit and the new Claus C unit to increase the facility's thermal efficiency from the current 39% to 58%. This would make the plant one of the highest-rated combined-cycle plants in the world.

The plant has two 640-megawatt (MW) units that came on stream in 1977 and 1978, respectively. Alstom has signed $1.5 billion contracts with Essent to repower the Claus B unit and construct the new Claus C unit, resulting in an integrated 1,920-MW combined-cycle plant based on Alstom's GT26 gas turbines.

Alstom will design and build Claus C next to the power plant and provide the main components, including three GT26 gas turbines with Topair turbogenerators. Equipment will also include heat-recovery steam generators, an ALSPA distributed control system and relevant auxiliary equipment. The 640-MW Claus B steam turbine will be retrofitted and integrated into the combined-cycle mode. The contracts include a long-term operation support and maintenance agreement. The retrofit and the three new turbines add 50% to the current power output and at the same time reduce CO2 emissions by 40%.

In May, Essent signed a contract with General Electric (NYSE:GE) (Fairfield, Connecticut) to build a 400-MW gas-fired unit in Moerdijk in the southern part of the country to double the present output by 2012.

Essent and its Geneva-based subsidiary, Essent Trading, had a combined turnover of $16.1 billion and a profit of $4 billion in the last financial year. Total sales of electricity stood at 39.2 terawatt-hours, and gas sales totaled 8.8 billion cubic meters.

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