You're talking about CCPP, or combined cycle power plants. These are commonly coal fired steam plants that utilize a gas turbine for peaking.
Large gas turbines can typically be spun up in 20 minutes or less, depending on the model. GE and other manufacturers have refined the gas turbine to the point where they are being used for base load applications more commonly. We have several gas fired plants in the Tampa area, and many utilities are converting their older coal fired plants to gas, a good example being in my former town of Port Washington, WI, where a heat recovery steam generator is used to power two steam turbines along with four gas fired turbines. The former coal fired plant took roughly 24 hours to bring a steam turbine on line, with a gas turbine used as a peaker. Conversion of the plant to 100% gas eliminated two large smokestacks and a coal pile that was replenished on a regular basis by coal boats from Lake Michigan. A good article on the construction of the plant can be found at: http://www.powermag.com/gas/Port-Washington-Generating-Station-Phase-2-Port-Washington-Wisconsin_1359.html Dan On Apr 18, 2012, at 9:46 PM, Allan Streib wrote: > Fmiser <fmi...@gmail.com> writes: > >> Electric generation from natural gas generally serves a >> different purpose than coal. The coal is used for baseline >> which can take a week to startup. The natural gas is used for >> on-demand. Startup is less than an hour, as I recall. > > Can be just minutes, some peak generation is done with gas turbine > engines, those don't take long to spin up. > > Allan > > -- > 1983 300D > 1979 300SD > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
