The world’s largest gas turbine is a behemoth. Named Harriet, GE’s 500,000 bhp gas turbine cost around $1 billion to develop and has the potential to run an entire 600 megawatt steam power plant all by its lonesome. But how do you test the world’s largest gas turbine?
Developed in France, Harriet was built with one idea in mind: to create the most versatile, highest performance turbine on the market. Capable of burning anything from shale to liquid natural gas, Harriet’s interior, which was modeled in part after supersonic jet engines, can withstand temperatures of 1,600° C (2,900° F) and runs at an efficiency of 61 percent with minimal emissions.
While Harriet’s mechanical and economic potential are amazing, verifying its ability was a monumental feat in and of itself. To build a world’s-first test bed GE invested another $185M into the Harriet project, including building a gasworks facility that could provide Harriet with 180,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas. According to the giant conglomerate, one of the biggest challenges facing Harriet was her shear power. Bringing the turbine online at full load could overwhelm a grid and cause significant damage to infrastructure. Isolating Harriet was a must.
Once sequestered from the grid, Harriet was free to undergo a torturous series of tests that included testing the turbine’s maximum power output and putting it through extreme simulations, like severe grid instability.
In just 3 months, they ran the turbine through operations that would normally take years to encounter in the field. They tested it at the maximum power output and simulated extreme events like severe grid instability caused by the oversupply of power, and observed the turbine respond and bring the grid back to normal. “You can’t do this in the field without wrecking the grid,” said Eric King, GE test engineer. “This hasn’t been done before. More than 50 customers flew in to see the test, including representatives from France’s Électricité de France.”
With tests in the bag, GE’s engineers have taken to fine tuning the turbine’s performance. With a backlog of 15 orders coming from all around the globe, GE’s engineers seem to have built a marvel. Sometime in 2016 Harriet’s first operational incarnation should come online in France, and once that occurs we’ll really get to see Harriet’s potential to shape the way we generate and regulate our energy industries.
Oh, and did I mention that when ramped up to full capacity Harriet can pump out air equal to the force of a Cat 5 hurricane? That’s enough air to fill a Goodyear blimp in just 10 seconds.
Source: GE