Florida will host the 21st Siemens H-class gas turbine

mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#333333">The first of three Siemens' H-Class gas turbines recently started operations at Florida Power & Light Company's (FPL) Cape Canaveral Next Generation Clean Energy Center in Port St. John, Fla., USA, near NASA's Kennedy Space Center. This was enabled as part of the Siemens full-power output testing program designed to put the turbine through many operating regimes.

mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#333333">The company’s Cape Canaveral Clean Energy Center is expected to enter operation in 2013, and will use Siemens's flexible gas turbines to generate power. It is likely to use 33 percent less fuel per megawatt-hour compared to the site's previous plant. FPL expects that this fuel efficiency will help the new plant to pay for itself, with fuel savings for customers estimated at more than $1 billion over its 30-year operational life.

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Siemens said it has so far sold 20 H-class turbines worldwide, and the new order followed a contract in 2010 to supply six H-Class turbines for the new 1,250-MW units at FPL's Cape Canaveral and Riviera Beach power plants in Florida.

The first of these previously ordered H-Class turbines has already started operations on Nov. 21 at Cape Canaveral. 

Three more units of the model SGT6-8000H gas turbine will soon be installed at a new plant under construction in Riviera Beach, Fla., USA. The project is scheduled to enter operation in 2014. The SGT6-8000H is the scaled 60-Hz version of Siemens's successful SGT5-8000H gas turbine and is designed to deliver 274 MW output of electric power. The SGT6-8000H is capable of reaching efficiencies of up to 60 percent in combined cycle operation, which FPL's Cape Canaveral and Riviera Beach plants will employ.

The SGT5-8000H, installed in a combined cycle power plant configuration at Irsching Power Station in Bavaria, Germany, achieved world-record efficiency of 60.75 percent in 2011. Roland Fischer, CEO of Fossil Power Generation Division of Siemens Energy said, “The H Class is a landmark in engineering and energy efficiency. Since its initial startup at the Irsching Power Station in Germany, this new machine has run extremely successfully for more than 18,000 operating hours.”