Siemens Delivers The Knapsack II CC Power Plant Ahead Of Schedule

BY Editor

Siemens delivers the Knapsack II CC power plant ahead of schedule – Jun 13, 2013– Erlangen, Germany  (Techreleased) – Siemens Energy completed the Knapsack II combined-cycle (CC) power plant in Hürth near Cologne, Germany, six weeks ahead of schedule. The customer is Statkraft Markets GmbH, a subsidiary of the Norwegian utility company Statkraft. Siemens constructed the entire power plant as a turnkey project and delivered the main components, including an F-Class gas turbine as well as a steam turbine, generator, and heat recovery steam generator. With an electrical capacity of about 430 megawatts (MW) and an efficiency of 59.2 percent, the plant is one of the most modern and environmentally friendly of its type in Europe. The short run-up and shutdown times make the power plant ideally suited to compensate for the fluctuating feed-in of renewables. It can thus play a major role in supporting Germany’s new energy policy.

Knapsack II Power Plant

Knapsack II power plant

The Knapsack II power plant is located in the Knapsack Chemical Industrial Park in Hürth near Cologne. Siemens constructed the turnkey facility and delivered a SGT5-4000F gas turbine, an SST5-3000 steam turbine, an SGen5-2000H generator, and the heat recovery steam generator as well as all the electrical engineering and the SPPA-T3000 control system. The Knapsack II power plant is a single-shaft unit in which the gas and steam turbines are arranged on one shaft and drive the same generator. Such plants offer economic advantages due to lower investment costs, along with a high degree of operating flexibility.

“The Knapsack II power plant is a highly modern facility that stands out thanks to its maximum flexibility and environmental compatibility. Due to its high efficiency, the CO₂ and nitrogen oxide emissions are very low. In addition, when in hot-start mode, the power plant can be run up to full load in just a few minutes and thereby compensate for fluctuations in electricity generated by wind turbines and solar stations. Flexible and reliable CC plants such as Knapsack II are necessary to support the new energy policy. However, it does have to adapt to market conditions in order to ensure that the investments are amortized over time,” said Lothar Balling, the head of Gas Turbine Power Plant Solutions at Siemens Energy.

Highly efficient combined cycle power plants are part of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2012, revenue from the Portfolio totaled about €33 billion, making Siemens one of the world’s largest suppliers of ecofriendly technologies. In the same period, our products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by more than 330 million tons, an amount equal to the total annual CO₂ emissions of Berlin, Delhi, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo.