| Turbine developments
Mitsubishi Power sees GTCC opportunities Europe
With the establishment of a new business unit, Mitsubishi Power is aiming to increase its combined cycle presence in Europe, emulating its success elsewhere. James Varley spoke to Jose Aguas, recently appointed VP GTCC Sales, EMEA
Mitsubishi Power describes itself as “the global leader in gas turbine technology” (see text-box, p 24), but understands it may not be perceived as such in Europe. At the same time the company believes significant new market opportunities are emerging for GTCC (gas turbine combined cycle) technology in Europe, driven, among other things, by the need to balance and stabilise grids that are accommodating increasing amounts of intermittent renewables and also coping with the closure of coal and nuclear plants. Mitsubishi Power is therefore aiming to significantly increase its visibility in the European combined cycle business. A key step was the establishment, in April 2021, of a new organisation, the Dubai-based GTCC EMEA Business Unit, with Jose Aguas appointed as VP GTCC Sales EMEA.
In this role, Jose, drawing on over 20 years of experience in the power generation technology sector, will spearhead efforts to increase Mitsubishi Power’s GTCC visibility across Europe. Located in Valencia, Spain, he reports to Khalid Salem, who takes on a new role as head of the GTCC EMEA Business Unit in addition to his existing role, president, Mitsubishi Power Middle East and North Africa.
“It may have seemed to some that we were not in Europe. We have in fact been here for over
a hundred years”, Jose points out, “with a large installed base including boilers, steam turbines, even a few gas turbines.” However, responding to its assessment of evolving power market conditions, Mitsubishi Power decided about 18 months ago that it needed to “reinforce its gas presence in Europe.”
Why gas power? Because it is controllable as well as achieving high efficiency and low emissions. And looking ahead, with hydrogen fuel and carbon capture, combined cycle technology presents the possibility of having “controllable power with zero emissions”, Jose explains. Up to around 2025, there are good prospects in Europe for what might called conventional gas combined cycle, he says, while after 2025 “there is great market potential for gas power plus new technologies, which are going to be all about hydrogen production, hydrogen burning, carbon capture and getting emissions down.” The new business unit is focused on Mitsubishi Power’s JAC (J-Series Air Cooled) gas turbines – which boast reliability of 99.6% and efficiency of greater than 64% in combined cycle. As delivered, JAC gas turbines are capable of operating on a mixture of up to 30% hydrogen and 70% natural gas.
“By 2025 our gas turbines will be 100%-hydrogen ready”, says Jose Aguas.
Above: JAC gas turbine (source: Mitsubishi Power)
He sees the European gas turbine business as roughly divided into two segments: cogeneration applications; and projects where new combined cycle plants are going to replace coal and nuclear units, so the “bigger the better”, which is “why the JAC turbine is the technology we are betting on to get participation in the European market.” There are in fact two versions of the JAC turbine, JAC and JAC K1 (?), both using what Mitsubishi calls “enhanced cooling” technology, but different in terms of scale, the smaller version more suited to CHP projects.
Mitsubishi Power calls its JAC machines “the most successful turbines in the industry”, and is trying to extend that success to Europe, where
Above: T-Point (source: Mitsubishi Power)
Above: Mitsubishi Power’s Savannah Machinery Works shipped Brazil’s first M501JAC gas turbine to Marlim Azul Energia’s power plant in Macaé, Rio de Janeiro (source: Mitsubishi Power)
www.modernpowersystems.com | July/August 2021 | 23
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