Alstom to upgrade UK’s biggest combined cycle plants

Alstom has agreed plans for a major upgrade with RWE Generation to implement its high performance MXL2 upgrade package on all nine gas turbines at the 2,200 MW Pembroke and 1,650 MW Staythorpe facilities - Britain's two biggest gas-fired combined cycle power plants.

The five GT26 gas turbines at Pembroke and four at Staythorpe will each be retrofitted with the multi-mode MXL2 upgrade, which offers increased performance, substantial improvements to operational efficiency and enhances availability through increased maintenance intervals.

This agreement also includes a comprehensive maintenance program for the RWE Generation GT26 fleet across Europe; including Staythorpe and Pembroke in the UK, and Claus-Maasbracht in the Netherlands.

The upgrading of nine advanced class gas turbines at some of the U.K.'s most important power plants is another milestone for Alstom's MXL2 product portfolio. Since its first implementation on a GT26 gas turbine at Spanish plant Castejon in 2009, the upgrade has been successfully demonstrated on the conventional class GT13E2 gas turbine, at South Humber Bank in Lincolnshire, U.K. in early 2012, and then on the GT24 gas turbine for the 60Hz market at Bayside plant in Canada in November of the same year.