GE’s Power Services (NYSE: GE) signed a milestone agreement to provide Advanced Gas Path (AGP) upgrades for two GE 9FA gas turbines at the Caojing combined-cycle power station in China.

GE’s Power Services signed will provide Advanced Gas Path (AGP) upgrades for two GE 9FA gas turbines at the Caojing combined-cycle power station in China, marking the company’s first 9FA AGP upgrade in the country.

The deal will help increase the output and efficiency of the 790 MW plant—the largest industrial cogeneration facility in Shanghai. In addition, GE signed a 25-year services agreement with Shanghai Caojing Co-Generation Co. Ltd., the owner of the Caojing power station, extending a previous collaboration between the two companies.

“China’s surging energy demands and continued growth in the petrochemical industry make it essential for us to continually improve the performance and availability of the Caojing combined-cycle plant to support local production requirements,” said Mr. Peigang Shi, general manager of Shanghai Caojing Co-Generation Co., Ltd. “This upgrade project will enable us to boost our supply of power and steam to the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park—one of the leading petrochemical bases in Asia—with higher efficiency and without increasing emissions.”

The gas turbine AGP technology, part of GE’s Fleet360* platform of total plant solutions, is engineered to increase turbine output by more than 6%, reduce heat rate by more than 1.5% and extend maintenance intervals from 24 000 to 32 000 factored hours—a leading figure in the industry, GE said.

Increasing the efficiency of existing thermal power plants has become a top global priority as countries seek to reach their emissions-reduction goals, GE said. GE’s recent Ecomagination study found that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the world’s fleets of natural gas and coal-fired plants can be reduced by 10% when existing hardware and software solutions are fully applied. Upgrades to existing plants can be done relatively quickly and cost-effectively. According to the study, the average global efficiency of gas plants can be improved by up to 1.8% through hardware improvements such as turbine and boiler upgrades and an additional 1.5% through software solutions and data analytics.

“The AGP and software upgrades can be implemented in the upcoming major outage, therefore delivering immediate benefit to Caojing,” said Sunny Xue, commercial general manager for GE’s Power Services in China. “Thanks to advanced material and flow-path design, our AGP technology provides 9FA.03 gas turbines with improved efficiency, longer maintenance intervals and longer parts life, helping to assure our customer’s units remain competitive over time.”

The deal extends a previous services agreement signed by GE and Shanghai Caojing Co-Generation Company in 2013, which saw implementation of the first Dry Low NOx 2.6+ combustion system upgrade for 9FA.03 gas turbines in Asia. That upgrade helped the Caojing plant achieve NOx emissions levels below 15 ppm, a 40% reduction from the previous level.