Successful ignition of Ansaldo Energia's first gas turbine in Germany
Pamela Largue
Posted on: 5 June 2023
Ansaldo Energia has successfully tested the connection of unit 6 of the Irsching plant to the German electricity grid| as well as achieved first firing of the gas turbine.
Italian power engineering company Ansaldo Energia has successfully tested the connection of unit 6 of the Irsching plant to the electricity grid in Germany, as well as achieved the first firing of the gas turbine.
The first synchronisation took place successfully on 4 May demonstrating compatibility with the 380kV grid.
According to Ansaldo Energia, synchronisation followed another important milestone, the first firing of the gas turbine. This is a crucial moment for the operation of the turbine and for control of the system's auxiliaries.
It marks the first in a series of events that will lead to the commissioning of the whole plant.
It also marks the first time that Ansaldo Energia has installed and put into service its own gas turbine in Germany.
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Ansaldo Energia, EPC contractor for the Irsching 6 open-cycle thermoelectric plant, has supplied an AE94.3A gas turbine and relative generator providing a total power output of 300MW.
Irsching 6 is owned by German energy company Uniper and forms part of the German TSO project "besonderes netztechnisches Betriebsmittel - bnBm" (grid reserve project).
Energy has been generated at the Irsching site near Ingolstadt for more than fifty years. A total of five power plant units are located here.
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Units 1 and 2 have been shut down for several years however due to the grid situation in southern Germany, unit 3 has been held in reserve by the transmission system operator TenneT TSO GmbH since 2012 to secure the power supply in critical grid situations.
Irsching 6 will serve as a supporting grid facility in critical situations as a security buffer of the power supply. According to Uniper, this means that the plant will not be available to the market, but will step in at short notice if the grid stability is at risk.
Ansaldo Energia will follow this project with the commissioning of the second project, the Marbach open-cycle power plant, which also operates an AE94.3A gas turbine.
