An upgrade at the gas-fired Castejon plant was finalized in 2009. "The output increased by 13.5 MW and efficiency by 0.7% as a result of this upgrade," Ladwig said.
The upgrade also resulted in an extension of maintenance intervals by 8000 operation hours, which means that the plant has more availability and reduced maintenance costs.
The Castejon plant was previously called KA26 Cartagena Power Plant, owned by Hc Energia. "Our KA26 power plant has a start up in under 30 minutes and at low loads for e.g. from 20% load, it can ramp up in 15 minutes to provide more than 350 MW," Ladwig said.
The KA26 upgrade, however does not include the full Next gen GT26 technology. "Only one component - the low pressure turbine was introduced as part of a service upgrade package offered from Alstom for its existing GT26 installed fleet," Ladwig said.
Alstom has a large combined cycle installed base in Spain, including 13 GT26 turbines powering close to 4800 MW in CCPP plants such as Cartagena, Castejon, Besos, Malaga, San Roque and Soto de Ribera IV & V.
"All these plants are highly flexible," according to Ladwig and "support the increasing renewable penetration in Spain."