First Power Plant in North America with Mitsubishi Hitachi New High-Efficiency Gas Turbine Nears Commercial Operation

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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) (Vinita, Oklahoma) is the first utility in the Western Hemisphere to deploy a new, high-efficiency gas turbine made by Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas Incorporated (MHPSA) (Lake Mary, Florida). It won't be the last.

MHPSA's M501J Series turbine can achieve efficiencies of about 62%, GRDA spokesman Justin Alberty told Industrial Info. "Although MHPSA has deployed several of these turbines in Asia, it had never deployed one in the Western Hemisphere. It was a big deal for us, and it was a huge deal for them." For more information on GRDA's decision to select the J-Series turbine, see April 25, 2015, article - Oklahoma Power Plant to be First North American Deployment of Mitsubishi's Advanced J-Series Turbine.

The J-Series turbine will be the heart of a $372 million unit addition that is nearing commercial operation at GRDA's Grand River Energy Center (GREC). The new unit will be GREC Unit 3. Construction of the 495-megawatt (MW) unit was completed earlier this year, and the power agency expects it to begin commercial operations this summer, possibly in June.

"We couldn't be more pleased with how the construction has gone," Alberty said in an interview. "In March 2014, when we signed the contract to have this built, the J-Series turbine was head and shoulders above its competitors." The new unit will burn natural gas extracted from Oklahoma, he added, an important consideration in the decision of GRDA and the 16 municipal utilities and distribution cooperatives in the Sooner State that get power from GRDA.

When the new unit comes online, GRDA will retire the 490-MW GREC Unit 1, which began operating in 1981. Last summer, shortly after installing a scrubber on GREC Unit 2, that unit sustained a "catastrophic" fire caused by lightning, requiring a near-complete rebuild, Alberty said. Unit 2, rated at about 525 MW, is expected to resume operations this summer. When units 2 and 3 are operating, GRDA can shut down GREC Unit 1.

While GRDA is the first deployment of the J-Series turbine in the Western Hemisphere, David Rosenberg, director of marketing for MHPSA, confirmed it soon will have plenty of company. Right now, he said, Mexico is scheduled to install six J-class turbines. In addition to the GRDA deployment, U.S. power-plant owners have committed to installing the high-efficiency turbines at five other locations. Two more will be installed in Canada, bringing the Western Hemisphere's total to 14, so far, he said in an email.

While the MHPS J-Series turbine was undergoing first fire in Oklahoma, Rosenberg said in an email, two new M501J 60Hertz turbines began commercial operations at separate power plants in South Korea. "When the Grand River Energy Center unit goes commercial, it will become the 24th J-Series turbine to become operational. MHPS recently achieved a major milestone by registering 385,000 Actual Operating Hours (AOH) of service for its J-Series units at power plants around the world."

He added that the J-Series turbine was commercialized in 2013 and there are now 23 of those high-efficiency turbines in commercial operation worldwide. Another 25 are being manufactured or have been delivered to power plants under construction. "In total, 95 J-Series (turbines) have been technically selected by utilities, municipal systems and independent power producers."

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