The three SGT-700Bs will be installed and maintained under a Long-Term Program (LTP) with Ascend, whereby Siemens will perform all scheduled outages. The eight-year LTP also calls for Siemens to upgrade, at the time of the first inspection, the B-series generators to C-series models (35 MW rating) to operate in a cogeneration application.
Phil McDivitt, President and CEO of Ascend called the project “transformational for our company,” given that the new gensets will help meet their future power generation needs while also lowering their emissions.
Commissioning in Q4-2021
The gas turbines will be manufactured in Siemens Gas and Power’s Finspång, Sweden plant in time for project commissioning, which is expected in the fourth quarter of next year.
With 6,500 rotations per minute (rpm), the SGT-700 is designed as a two-stage uncooled free-power gas turbine. It can run at 50 to 105% of its nominal shaft speed, enabling high output and efficiency under a range of operating conditions. Its high exhaust heat and ability to handle sudden load changes, makes the SGT-700 “ideally suited” for simple cycle, combined cycle, cogeneration, and other heating applications, the manufacturer noted.
The turbine’s high exhaust heat will allow Ascend meet their future process steam needs at lower fuel costs than with the previously installed solution. “They expressed that much of the reason they selected Siemens Gas and Power is the confidence they have in us and our product,” said Gabriel Popescu, Vice President of Siemens Energy Oil & Gas Services, North America.
“We have supplied other power generation equipment to Ascend in the past, and we have the manufacturing and logistics expertise to support their future power needs within a very short delivery window.”