World leader in power generation GE announced that the modernisation of ELPEDISON’s Thessaloniki Power Plant in Greece was completed safely and successfully.
The upgrade of the power generation assets consisted in the instalment of digital solutions to help increase the plant’s output by over 20 megawatts (MW), equal to powering 17,000 Greek households and reduce its start-up costs by 10 per cent. An additional important achievement is the increased efficiency of the power plant with decreased fuel consumption and emissions.
The project supports Greece’s plans for the transition towards lower-carbon power generation and highlights GE’s commitment to supporting power plant operators in their energy transition efforts to increase electricity production capacity with more efficient gas technologies.
“A number of factors drive the growth of the energy sector of Greece: primarily, the required improvement of the energy mix, the liberalisation of the electricity and natural gas markets as well as the efforts to improve energy efficiency and reduce the costs and infrastructure development,” said Silvio Jean, Director of ELPEDISON Power Generation. “As the first independent energy producer in Greece, it is important for us to increase our competitiveness in the power segment by extending the life of our plants and providing the best service to our users. By using the latest GE technology, we will also significantly lower emissions, by improving our heat rate by almost 2 per cent and lower our minimum load, reducing our cost’s structure and providing value to the environment and to our clients.”
“Greece’s recovery plan proposes investments and reforms that support climate objectives providing an opportunity to progress with longer-term emissions reduction,” added Steven Miller, Services Leader for GE Gas Power Europe. “Pursuing initiatives that support sustainable increases in efficiency and increasing the share of natural gas and renewable energy in the energy mix would contribute to the country’s energy transition goals. With this project, the Thessaloniki Power Plant will see an increase in power output and flexibility, improved efficiency, extended asset lifetime as well as significant savings on fuel costs in line with the energy sector reform that Greece is currently implementing”.
In addition to the upgrade, the project included GE Digital’s Operations Performance Management (OPM) software solution. Enabled by secure edge-to-cloud technology, OPM will analyse Thessaloniki’s plant historical performance and operations to monitor and diagnose possible issues, improve capacity planning and drive improved efficiency, flexibility, capacity and emissions.
Photo: Elpedison.
