The Polish energy company, the Orlen Group, will build a combined cycle gas turbine plant (CCGT) with a capacity of 560 megawatts (MW) in Grudziądz (north Poland), the company announced on Thursday (18 May).
Once constructed, it will become one of the most advanced plants of its kind in Europe, which is estimated to provide electricity to one million households. The unit will be built by CCGT Grudziądz, a subsidiary of the Group’s Energa (power company).
The use of a CCGT unit will ensure that the new plant will work effectively with renewables, cutting carbon emissions without the risk of disrupting power supply to consumers, the company said.
“The Orlen Group is pursuing the most ambitious energy transition strategy in our region. The goal is emission neutrality, therefore wind and PV [photovoltaic] farm generation will be complemented by state-of-the-art highly flexible gas-fired power plants, capable of responding quickly to changes in RES [renewable energy sources] generation,” said Daniel Obajtek, President of PKN Orlen’s Management Board. “This will make it possible for us to ensure a stable electricity supply to consumers regardless of weather conditions or time of day. In doing so, we rely on cutting-edge solutions to ensure high operational efficiency, reliability and cost-effectiveness. The CCGT unit to be built in Grudziądz, with an efficiency exceeding 60 per cent and which can be put into operation in just 30 to 90 minutes, will be just that.”
The gas-fired power unit is planned to be commissioned in 2025, with the completion of the key equipment (inc. gas and steam turbines and the generator) scheduled for the first half of 2024.
The unit’s construction is part of the company’s expansion of renewable power generation and stable low-emission sources. By 2030, the Group intends to increase the installed capacity of its gas-fired power plants from 1.7 gigawatts (GW) to 4 GW. The Grudziądz power plant and the CCGT unit, which is being built in parallel in Ostrołęka (north-east Poland), will be rated at 1.3 GW in total.
