G:/GTE/FINAL (26-10-01)/CHAPTER 1.3D 9 [157/57] 1.11.

2001 3:42PM

An Overview of Gas Turbines

The time taken to install a steam plant from conception to production

is about 4260 months as compared to 2236 months for combined cycle
power plants. The actual construction time is about 18 months, while
environmental permits in many cases take 12 months and engineering 612
months. The time taken for bringing the plant on line affects the economics
of the plant, the longer the capital employed without return, accumulates
interest, insurance, and taxes.
It is obvious from this that as long as natural gas or diesel fuel is available
the choice of combined cycle power plants is obvious.
Gas Turbine Performance

The aerospace engines have been the leaders in most of the technology
in the gas turbine. The design criteria for these engines was high reliability,
high performance, with many starts and flexible operation throughout the
flight envelope. The engine life of about 3500 hours between major overhauls was considered good. The aerospace engine performance has
always been rated primarily on its thrust/weight ratio. Increase in engine
thrust/weight ratio is achieved by the development of high-aspect
ratio blades in the compressor as well as optimizing the pressure ratio
and firing temperature of the turbine for maximum work output per unit
flow.
The Industrial Gas Turbine has always emphasized long life and this
conservative approach has resulted in the Industrial Gas Turbine in many
aspects giving up high performance for rugged operation. The Industrial
Gas Turbine has been conservative in the pressure ratio and the firing
temperatures. This has all changed in the last 10 years; spurred on by the
introduction of the ``Aero-Derivative Gas Turbine'' the industrial gas turbine has dramatically improved its performance in all operational aspects.
This has resulted in dramatically reducing the performance gap between
these two types of gas turbines. The gas turbine to date in the combined
cycle mode is fast replacing the steam turbine as the base load provider of
electrical power throughout the world. This is even true in Europe and the
United States where the large steam turbines were the only type of base load
power in the fossil energy sector. The gas turbine from the 1960s to the late
1980s was used only as peaking power in those countries, it was used as base
load mainly in the ``developing countries'' where the need of power was
increasing rapidly that the wait of three to six years for a steam plant was
unacceptable.
Figures 1-3 and 1-4 show the growth of the Pressure Ratio and Firing
Temperature. The growth of both the Pressure Ratio and Firing Temperature