E.ON and Siemens were presented with the Bavarian Energy Award 2010 by Katja Hessel, State Secretary at the Bavarian Economics Ministry. From left to right: Prof. Dr. Josef Nassauer, Managing Director Bayern Innovativ, Keith Plowman, Head of E.ON Kraftwerke, Michael SuB, CEO Fossil Power Generation, Siemens Energy, Katja Hessel, State Secretary at the Bavarian Economics Ministry. (Press picture: Bayern Innovativ)
E.ON and Siemens were presented with the Bavarian Energy Award 2010 by Katja Hessel, State Secretary at the Bavarian Economics Ministry. The prize is worth 10,000 euros. The two companies earned the award for their efforts to ensure safe and reliable power supply in keeping with the highest environmental and climate-protection standards at the Irsching 4 power plant. This ultra-modern and extremely efficient plant features the world's most powerful gas turbine. With this turbine, Irsching 4, a (gas and steam) combined-cycle power plant, will achieve a hitherto unique world-record efficiency of over 60 percent. The two companies have agreed to donate the prize money of 10,000 euros to the vocational college in Pfaffenhofen, in the immediate vicinity of the Irsching power plant.
"The Irsching 4 combined cycle power plant sets new global benchmarks in the generation of power from gas, in terms of climate protection, performance and economy. The award highlights the importance of this power plant and of Siemens' new gas turbine to the entire power industry. This highly versatile plant enables the ongoing integration of renewable energy resources into our power supply system," says Keith Plowman, head of E.ON Kraftwerke.
"Our new gas turbine is a supreme example of the fine art of engineering. That the first of its kind is running here in Bavaria underscores Bavaria's importance as a high-tech location. What enabled us here to break new technical ground was that we all pulled together – power providers, engineers, building contractors and also the public. In E.ON we found just the right partner to implement this trail-blazing technology," explained Michael Suess, CEO of the Fossil Power Generation Division of Siemens Energy.
In all, 250 engineers helped to design the turbine and 500 mechanics and fitters put it together in the Berlin manufacturing plant. The plant was built by Siemens Energy between 2006 and 2008 as the prototype of a gas turbine power plant of the latest generation. For almost a year ? around 1500 operating hours ? the turbine was put through its paces and tested at length and in depth. The results fully corroborate the Siemens engineers' high expectations. Since September 2009, a steam turbine and a heat recovery boiler are being added to the gas turbine to bring the Irsching 4 combined cycle power plant up to a total rating of 555 megawatts (brutto). If everything goes according to schedule, E.ON will take the plant over from Siemens and put it into commercial operation in the fall of 2011. Together with the Irsching 3 power plant and the Irsching 5 joint venture power plant, the Irsching location will then be home to almost 2,000 megawatts of power generating capacity.
