Within just a few weeks, Siemens has secured orders for nine compact steam turbines from customers in Great Britain and the United States. These latest orders mirror the “growing demand for small units to serve distributed power solutions,” Siemens’ Volker Neumann commented.
The turbines for both orders will be manufactured Siemens' production site in Frankenthal, which is managed by Mr. Neumann. Three SST-040 turbines will be delivered to the Dutch energy provider Kara Energy Systems for biomass power plants in the UK, while Airclean Energy, based in Seattle, has placed an order for six SST-110 compact steam turbines.
The three SST-040s, with a capacity of 300-420 kilowatts (kW), will be deployed in three biomass plants across the UK which are scheduled to begin operation between November 2016 and February 2017. Siemens has already received three identical orders from Kara over the course of the past twelve months.
Enhancing power output of SST-040
Responding to customer needs, Siemens has expanded the SST-040 output beyond 300 kW – the first enlarged engine will be supplied to Kara. Technical advancement ultimately allows the SST-040 to generate up to 750 kW in power output.
The turbine, gearing, electrical generator and all related equipment units are installed on a common base frame that weight only some 4,500 kg. Thanks to the compact design, the unit requires just a very small foundation.
SST-110 to be deployed in US Midwest
The US industrial equipment supplier has ordered six compact SST-110 steam turbines which it will integrate into turnkey industrial power projects across the Midwest. Each SST-100, with an output of 3 MW each, will replace steam pressure reducing valve (PRV) stations, optimizing the efficiency of the steam cycle. This type of retrofit is subsidised by many utilities in various states throughout the US.
Pressure reducing valve stations help reduce boiler steam pressure to the right levels – yet, significant amounts of energy tends to get lost during that process. Airclean Energy will now recover this lost energy by reducing the steam pressure through the Siemens turbine and running a generator that will offset electrical energy consumption at the facility.
The benefit of the SST-110 is its ability to reduce pressure to two different pressure levels at once – allowing the use of waste steam at industrial facilities that often run at pressure levels.