GE Power (www.ge.com/power) recently announced that it has been selected by BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd) to supply a 6F.03 gas turbine and a generator for installation at HPCL’s (Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd) refinery at Vizag (Visakhapatnam) in India.

The order, worth just over £24 million, is part of the capacity expansion plan of HPCL refinery from the current 8.33 MMTPA (million metric tonnes per annum) to 15 MMTPA.

The gas turbine will generate close to 60MW of power to run the plant operations, while the exhaust steam energy generated will be used for process applications.

The HPCL Vizag order also marks the foray of GE’s F-class technology into India’s refinery segment, thereby offering a significant opportunity for technology upgrades in future.

Delivering the heat rate improvement of more than 25% over the traditional Frame 5 machines, the 6F.03 gas turbine will bring significant cost benefit to HPCL in terms of fuel savings during the power plant operations.

Well-suited for the oil and gas sector and featuring GE’s robust DLN (Dry Low NOx) 2.6 combustion system (less than 15ppm NOx), the 6F.03 gas turbine ensures that the power plant complies with the latest emission requirements.

With a large and diversified installed base across 40 countries world-wide, 6F.03 gas turbines have registered more than 7.9 million operating hours, with more than 140 units under operation.