GE’s Power Life Max enables greater efficiency and output
In an effort to increase efficiency and energy output, Dubal partners with GE to equip their 9E turbine with the Power Life Max solution.
Overview
In an industry that demands enormous amounts of electricity, Dubal decided to use GE’s Power LifeMax solution on their 9E turbine.
The challenge
Due to a global oversupply of aluminium and a huge demand for electricity, Dubal is challenged to find a way to increase efficiency and power output.
The solution
GE’s Power LifeMax technology provides a customizable solution to address their specific needs of increasing power output and reducing fuel consumption.
Outcomes
More power, less aluminum
17.64 MW
increase in output capacity
reduction in fuel consumption
"
Incorporating these new technologies into our power station is central to our long-term strategy of producing aluminum products as efficienctly and cost-effectively as possible for our customers. The solutions GE has customized for our unique power demands will allow us to achieve such levels of efficiency.
Tayeb Al Awadhi
EGA/Dubal’s Vice president for Power & Desalination
Inventor Charles Martin Hall was just 51 years old when he died in 1914, but a century later his discovery is still touching everything from soda to space flight. Working in a woodshed behind his family home in 1886, Hall found an inexpensive way to produce pure aluminum by using electricity to break down aluminum oxide, a process called electrolysis. Hall went on to launch Alcoa and his method dominates the global aluminum industry to this day.
As the name implies, electrolysis consumes electrical power. A lot of it, in the aluminum business, electricity can add up to 40 percent of production costs. That’s why smart smelters like EGA/Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL) in the United Arab Emirates need ways to make power generation cheaper. “With a global oversupply of aluminum leading to nearly 20 percent of the industry’s total production sold for little or no profit, our success going forward will depend on increasing our production levels while lowering our operational costs,” said Tayeb Al Awadhi, EGA/DUBAL’s vice president for power & desalination.
EGA/DUBAL, the world’s second largest aluminum smelter site, runs its own 2,350-megawatt power plant and consumes most of the electricity it generates. Since the 1980s, the plant has relied on GE gas turbines to produce its power. EGA/DUBAL installed GE software, sensors, and an upgraded control system along with new combustion and hot gas path hardware in the turbines.
This upgrade is a great example of GE's Power LifeMax* solution. By partnering closely with EGA/DUBAL engineers and operators, GE developed a tailored upgrade package to help EGA/DUBALachieve its desired outcomes. The new system is constantly gathering and analyzing data critical to the turbine's performance.
EGA/DUBAL engineers can optimize the machines for fuel efficiency, maximum output and emissions, or balance all three. They can also remotely access GE expertise and benchmark their performance against global power production generated by GE's global turbine fleet. The system can help improve maintenance and cut back on unplanned downtime.
DUBAL’s first GE 9E turbine equipped with Power Life Max* and other new GE technology has increased power output by 3.4 percent, and reduced fuel consumption by 1.5 percent.
*Trademark of General Electric Company
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