Gas Turbines

Simple-cycle gas plant in North Carolina achieves Guinness World Records title

Duke Energy’s Lincoln Combustion Turbine Station is now certified with the Guinness World Records title for the “most powerful simple-cycle gas power plant.”
Simple-cycle gas plant in North Carolina achieves Guinness World Records title
(Source: Duke Energy.)

NOTE: Be sure to watch our POWERGEN+ network webinar: “How the fast-ramping SGT6-9000HL at Duke Energy’s Lincoln Station supports solar and the path to net-zero.”

Duke Energy’s Lincoln Combustion Turbine Station is now certified with the Guinness World Records title for the “most powerful simple-cycle gas power plant.”

The plant, powered by a Siemens Energy SGT6-9000HL turbine, achieved an output of 410.9 MW during testing on Jan. 30.

Siemens Energy is currently testing the 60Hz SGT6-9000HL turbine at the Lincoln site, located near Denver, North Carolina. In April 2020, the company synched the unit to the grid for the first time.

Siemens Energy plans to turn the unit over to Duke Energy in 2024. It would become the most efficient simple-cycle combustion turbine in the utility’s fleet and 34% more efficient than the other turbines at the Lincoln site.

The SGT6-9000HL is based on four generations of technologies and five previous models, starting with the SGT-2000E in the 1980s. It is designed to run longer between maintenance cycles.

The HL-class’s engine architecture is composed of an air-cooled four-stage power turbine, hydraulic clearance optimization for higher efficiency at full load while facilitating immediate restart, a steel rotor design with Hirth serrations and a central single tie rod and a “can annular” combustion system, according to Siemens Energy.

The advanced can-annular combustion system with dual fuel capability allows for higher firing temperatures and more operational flexibility. Twenty-five premix burners improve the fuel/oxygen mixing, and the ACE combustion system allows for GT turn-down to 30 percent GT load.

The turbine has fast-responding capabilities, with a ramp up and down rate of about 85 MW per minute. This is an important quality when integrating with renewables.

Duke Energy started construction on its Lincoln expansion project in September 2018. The 16-unit power plant was selected because its 746-acre site allowed room for expansion.

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