Dunamenti Power Plant, owned by GDF-Suez, has signed a Euro24m contract with Alstom for the upgrade of turbo group no 8 and its auxiliaries at the Dunamenti power plant in Hungary. The contract forms an essential part of a Euro200m investment programme aimed at increasing the capacity of Unit F8 of the power plant from 215MW to above 400MW and, more importantly, carry out a 20% increase in efficiency from 36% to 57%.
Under the terms of this contract – constituting an important part of the total investment – Alstom Power Service Hungary will upgrade the complete steam turbine island and the associated balance of plant.
"We have chosen Alstom because of their long term local presence and experience with our turbo generators combined with global know-how and experience in power plant upgrade," said Péter Csiba, managing director of Dunamenti Power Plant. "Our goal is to continuously satisfy the increasing demand for energy in the country. With this investment we are on the right track."
This is the biggest contract ever signed by Alstom Power Service in Hungary. Most activities will be carried out locally and some services and components will be delivered by other Alstom units in the region e.g. factories in Berlin, Germany, Elblag, Poland and Bucharest, Romania.
"Almost half of installed power generation capacity in Hungary is more than 30 years old and most of them need a ‘facelift' to increase their efficiency, extend their lifetime and reduce their impact on the environment. Alstom is in a position to provide the solutions and technology for these ageing power plants," said Mr. Vilmos Wolff, managing director of Alstom Power Service Hungary.
Thanks to the investment program Dunamenti Power Plant will not only increase the efficiency and capacity of the unit, but also consequently reduce the fuel consumption and emissions. The brownfield approach minimises the environmental impact of the project. The targeted electrical efficiency of the upgraded block, scheduled to be back on line in 2011, will be better than any other power generating unit in Hungary today. This project marks the first step in Dunamenti's broader strategy to modernise the power plant by increasing efficiency, reducing the environmental effects and increasing the total installed capacity. In the frame of this strategy the power plant has already started preparation of the next development project, called the G4 project.
