Siemens opens Charlotte Energy Hub Expansion

Siemens recently launched its Charlotte Energy Hub Expansion Project in North Carolina by adding gas turbine (GT) manufacturing capabilities at this site. With this, Siemens now has one centralized facility for the manufacture of gas turbines, steam turbines, compressors, electric generation equipment and servicing of the fleet.

The company has added a GT production plant in Charlotte at a total investment of $350 million, which is designed to operate 24/7.  This 450,000 square feet GT production plant which broke ground only 13 months ago, covers about three football fields of space and reaches 100 feet high.

Randy Zwirn, President and CEO of Siemens Energy said, “Nearly 50% of the work in both the steam turbine-generator and gas turbine factories is for serving customer equipment or manufacturing replacement elements for existing plants.”

Siemens no longer has all its GT manufacturing capabilities centered in Berlin, and Charlotte will produce GTs for the Americas and other 60-Hz markets. When the factory is fully operational in the spring of 2012, it will be capable of producing 38 units per year, including the latest SGT-8000-H models.

Siemens has officially shipped the first GT built at the plant, a SGT6-5000F that is now en route to the 250 MW La Caridad 1 Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP) in Sonora State, Mexico. This site will be owned by Grupo Mexico and will be used to supply power to an existing copper mine.

Grupo Mexico just made a second order for an SGT6-5000F for its La Caridad 2 project. Similar to the first CCPP, it is a turnkey deal, and these plants will help the company reduce power costs by 40 percent. Xavier Garcia de Quevedo, Executive President of Grupo Mexico said, “The two combined cycle power plants will provide Grupo Mexico with significant savings as electricity is one of the main cost factors at its mines.”