Peterhead Power Station: Parallel Repowering Innovative Steam Turbine Enhancement

Abstract

In the year 2000 one of Europe’s most flexible power stations was commissioned by the authors’ company. The existing fossil fired power station was modified by a “Parallel Repowering”. With that concept three gas turbines (GT) in combination with three heat recovery steam generators (HRSG) were tied-in additionally to the fired boiler. This concept is compelling especially for large steam power plants and offers more flexibility than “Full Repowering” in matching GTs with the existing steam turbine (ST). The key to maintaining reliability of the repowered unit is the ST modernisation. Plant operability enhancements provide the flexibility of the fired boiler and ST for load following and peaking purposes. The authors’ company was responsible for the complete conversion of the fossil fired power station into a modern combined cycle unit. This comprises the tie-in of new steam pipes, bypass stations and the upgrade of the steam turbine auxiliaries as well as the implementation of a new automation system parallel to the existing one. The “Parallel Repowering” offers a maximum of operation variations: •Conventional (Rakine cycle) mode. •Open cycle mode (only GT). •Combined cycle mode. •Hybrid mode. The non-OEM steam turbine needed to be modified for the combined cycle operation with GTs. The condenser load had to be kept as low as possible because of the existing condenser design. Auxiliary systems like the gland steam system and the drain system had to be modified for all different operating modes. Special design features, like the IP rotor cooling system and the flange heating system, had to be extended to operate under all circumstances. One essential difference to the existing operational mode is the necessity of a steam bypass operation. Existing cold reheat (CRH) piping is of carbon steel, so the ST needs to be started with an isolated HP cylinder. The following modifications for the HP turbine were necessary: •For the isolated HP cylinder operation non-return valves (NRV) were built into the CRH line at the HP turbine exhaust. •The HP cylinder will be automatically isolated by closure of the HP valves and the non-return valves in the CRH line, and the simultaneous opening of the HP vent line. •As no instrumentation was available for a reliable monitoring of the isolated operation, a controlled reverse flow from the CRH to the HP vent line was established. •The HP cylinder evacuation is controlled by a dedicated control logic.