Gas Turbine Combined Cycle Range Enhancer—Part 2: Performance Demonstration

Abstract

Abstract In the current energy scenario, gas turbine combined cycles (GTCCs) are considered key drivers for the transition towards fossil-free energy production. However, to meet this goal, they must be able to cope with rapid changes in power request and extend their operating range beyond the limits imposed by the environmental conditions in which they operate. The European H2020 project PUMP-HEAT (Pump-Heat Project, 2021, D4. 6 – “Validation Results in Energy -Hub of MPC With Cold Thermal Storage,”) aims at achieving this goal thanks to the integration of the GTCC with a heat pump (HP) and a thermal energy storage (TES). To study this setup, a dedicated cyber-physical facility was built at the University of Genova laboratories, Italy. The plant includes physical hardware, such as a 100kWel microgas turbine, (mGT), a 10 kWel HP and a 180 kWh change phase material-based TES. These real devices are up-scaled thanks to performance maps and real-time dynamic models to emulate a full-scale heavy-duty 400 MW GTCC with a cyber-physical approach. The control system determines the optimal configuration of the whole plant and the operative point of the real devices to minimize the mismatch with a real electric power demand curve. Different operative configurations are tested: one for reducing the power production of the plant below the minimum environmental load (MEL) and two for augmenting the plant maximum power under certain ambient conditions. From the analysis of these tests, it is possible to verify the effectiveness of the proposed concept and characterize the transient behavior of the real components.