GE to retrofit four steam turbines in South Korean facility

GE’s Power Services business recently signed an agreement to retrofit four Toshiba industrial steam turbines at the POSCO Pohang Works steel manufacturing facility in Pohang, Republic of South Korea. The project is likely to extend the operating life of the power plant and nearly double the turbines’ ability to generate process steam used for steel production.

GE’s steam turbine retrofit solution is also expected to enable POSCO to increase process steam production efficiency as it retires the power plant’s other older generating units. The modernization of the nearly 50-year-old steam turbines will blend hardware and software technology with newly designed replacements of the turbines’ internal components including a digital electro-hydraulic controller, a condition monitoring system, generator stator rewinding, generator rotor refurbishment, exciter rewinding and turbine installation.

The power plant recycles the factory’s own blast furnace gas (a waste gas created during the steel production process) to fuel the boilers, which create steam used in the steam turbines. By increasing the operational reliability of the turbines, POSCO is using its own waste gas to generate additional steam power instead of allowing it to escape into the atmosphere.

The plant’s current total on-site generating capacity is 1079 MW and meets approximately 50% of the factory’s internal energy requirements. The plant also incorporates two 110 MW GT11N2 gas turbines and one 120 MW steam turbine in combined-cycle mode as well as a 100-MW steam turbine. The output of each turbine is expected to increase up to 78 MW.

The components for the turbine retrofits are scheduled to be delivered to the factory in February 2017, December 2017, December 2018 and December 2019. The retrofits are scheduled to be completed in July 2017, June 2018, June 2019 and June 2020, respectively.