Rotor life extensions help provide power to Singapore
With a goal of providing reliable and competitive energy to Asia, one of our customers came to GE to perform rotor life extension services on 9 of its 9F gas turbine rotors.
Overview
GE went above and beyond for the customer, investing heavily in its service center in Singapore to address their needs.
The challenge
The customer operates a total of 9 20+-year old gas turbines across three different power plants. All of their rotors were reaching end of life and needed serious servicing to keep operating and producing power for the country. Unfortunately, there is no provider in Asia who could perform the necessary rotor life extension (RLE) work—except for GE.
The solution
To solve the customer’s challenges, GE had to solve one of its own: The fact that its GRSS (GE Repair Solutions Singapore) service center needed to build up its capabilities to handle all 9 RLEs within the shop. After an investment of more than $4 million, GE was able to start work on the RLEs, accomplishing the first 9F RLE performed at the GRSS in the process.
Outcomes
15-20 years
rotor life extension
35% increase
in GRSS shop capabilities
The project started as a partnership two years before the RLE work began at the GRSS, with the customer and GE working together to determine what additional inspection tooling and machines the center needed, investing in and installing the new equipment, and training the machine vendors.
The major equipment ordered included:
- Dedicated RLE inspection equipment
- New Horizontal Rotor Balance Machine
- New Vertical Turning Lathe
Rotor life extension for F rotors is a process GE has created over many years of experience with design analytics, shop inspections and operating data. Now, with the additional investment, the GRSS can perform RLEs on 7F and 9F RLEs—and the additional capacity has increased the center’s capability by at least 35%. To date, 5 of the customer’s gas turbine rotors have been serviced and are back in operation, with another 15-20 years of operating life ahead. The remaining four rotors at the third facility are expected to be complete in 2024.
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