Electricite de France (EDF) and GE recently announced plans to
jointly develop the first FlexEfficiency 50 plant to be
connected to a national grid. The combined-cycle plant will be
located at Bouchain, an existing EDF power plant site in
northern France, and will produce 510 megawatts. This EDF plant,
scheduled to be GE's first operational FlexEfficiency example
when it opens in 2015, is expected to achieve more than 61
percent efficiency at base load, based on GE test data. The
turbine will be built at a GE manufacturing facility in Belfort,
France. GE's FlexEfficiency 50 plant includes: a next-generation
9FB Gas Turbine, a 109D-14 Steam Turbine that runs on the waste
heat produced by the gas turbine, an advanced W28 Generator, a
Mark Vle control system and a heat recovery steam generator
(HRSG). "The FlexEfficiency 50 plant will allow us to improve
supply side energy efficiency and reach emission reduction
challenges," said Ricardo Cordoba, regional president and CEO of
GE Energy. According to Ricardo Cord