Market Operators are Demanding Reliable Gas Turbine Startups
The ISOs are enacting huge penalties if GTs don't start when called -- its more important than ever because of renewables. GT Startup System Controls must be reliable.
Gas turbines traditionally were baseloaded assets, but today GTs are asked to start hundred of times per year. When coupled with aging LCI control components, each start becomes a high risk event that could lead to extreme financial burdens for the plant.
If the starting system fails it could mean days or weeks of lost revenue, but worse than that -- if you're getting a capacity payment, the penalties can be huge. A recent simulation showed $1,836 per MWh which would be the penalty for failure to deliver during a PAH (performance assessment hour) -- in the simulation, the highest penalty charged to one resource for a single hour was $1,198,996.
The good news is there's a simple solution. Upgrade the Load Commutated Inverter (LCI) static starting system. By bringing the startup system into the 21st century, the gas turbine predicted start reliability increases dramatically - this low cost 'insurance policy' against failed starts gives owners and operators peace of mind that they can avoid lost revenue and massive penalties from the market operators.
