Production of gas turbines. A plant for the production of gas turbines was launched in the Leningrad region

A gloating article appeared in the Western press that the construction of new power plants in Crimea actually stopped due to Western sanctions - after all, we supposedly forgot how to make turbines for power plants ourselves and bowed to Western companies, which are now forced to curtail their operations due to sanctions. deliveries and thereby leave Russia without turbines for energy.

“The project called for Siemens turbines to be installed at the power plants. However, in this case, this German engineering company risks violating the sanctions regime. Sources say that in the absence of turbines, the project faces serious delays. Siemens officials have always said that they did not intend to implement supply of equipment.
Russia has explored the possibility of acquiring turbines from Iran, making changes to the design to install Russian-made turbines, and using Western turbines previously purchased by Russia and already located on its territory. Each of these alternatives comes with its own set of challenges, which sources say officials and project leaders are unable to agree on how to move forward.
This story demonstrates that, despite official denials, Western sanctions do have a real negative impact on the Russian economy. It also sheds light on the decision-making mechanism under Vladimir Putin. It is about the propensity of high officials, according to sources close to the Kremlin, to make grandiose political promises that are almost impossible to realize.

"Back in October 2016, company representatives at a briefing in Munich reported that Siemens excludes the use of its gas turbines at thermal power plants in the Crimea. We are talking about gas turbines that are manufactured in Russia at the Siemens gas turbine technology plant in St. Petersburg, which was put into operation in 2015. The shares in this company are distributed as follows: Siemens - 65%, Power Machines - beneficiary A. Mordashov - 35%. 160 MW, and in the contract signed in the spring of 2016, a thermal power plant in Taman is indicated.

In fact, it so happened that since the times of the USSR, the production of gas turbine units for power plants was concentrated at 3 enterprises - in the then Leningrad, as well as in Nikolaev and Kharkov. Accordingly, during the collapse of the USSR, Russia was left with only one such plant - LMZ. Since 2001, this plant has been manufacturing Siemens turbines under license.

"It all started in 1991, when a joint venture was created - then still LMZ and Siemens - for the assembly of gas turbines. An agreement was signed on the transfer of technology to the then Leningrad Metal Plant, which is now part of Power Machines OJSC. On this The joint venture assembled 19 turbines over 10 years.Over the years, LMZ has accumulated production experience in order to learn how to not only assemble these turbines, but also manufacture some components on their own.Based on this experience, in 2001 a license agreement was concluded with Siemens the right to manufacture, sell and after-sales service of turbines of the same type. They received the Russian marking GTE-160".

Where did their developments, which were successfully carried out there over the previous approximately 40 years, go? As a result, domestic power engineering (gas turbine building) was left with nothing. Now we have to beg abroad in search of turbines. Even in Iran.

"Rostec Corporation has reached an agreement with the Iranian company Mapna, which manufactures German gas turbines under license from Siemens. Thus, gas turbines manufactured in Iran according to the drawings of German Siemens can be installed at new power plants in Crimea."

The difficult international situation is forcing Russia to speed up import substitution programs, especially in strategic sectors. In particular, in order to overcome dependence on imports in the energy sector, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation are developing measures to support domestic turbine construction. Are Russian manufacturers, including the only specialized plant in the Ural Federal District, ready to meet the growing demand for new turbines, the RG correspondent found out.

At the new CHPP "Akademicheskaya" in Yekaterinburg, a turbine manufactured by UTZ is operating as part of a CCGT. Photo: Tatyana Andreeva / RG

Pavel Zavalny, Chairman of the Energy Committee of the State Duma, notes two main problems of the energy industry - its technological backwardness and a high percentage of depreciation of the existing main equipment.

According to the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, over 60 percent of power equipment in Russia, in particular turbines, has exhausted its park resource. In the Urals Federal District, in the Sverdlovsk region, there are more than 70 percent of these, however, after the commissioning of new capacities, this percentage has slightly decreased, but still there is a lot of old equipment and it needs to be replaced. After all, energy is not just one of the basic industries, the responsibility here is too high: imagine what will happen if you turn off the light and heat in winter, says Yuri Brodov, head of the Turbines and Engines Department of the Ural Power Engineering Institute, UrFU, Doctor of Technical Sciences.

According to Zavalny, the fuel utilization ratio at Russian thermal power plants is slightly above 50 percent, while the share of combined cycle gas plants (CCGTs) considered the most efficient is less than 15 percent. It should be noted that CCGTs were put into operation in Russia in the last decade - exclusively on the basis of imported equipment. The situation with the Siemens arbitration lawsuit regarding the alleged illegal delivery of their equipment to the Crimea showed what a trap this is. But it is unlikely that it will be possible to quickly solve the problem of import substitution.

The fact is that if domestic steam turbines have been quite competitive since the times of the USSR, then the situation with gas turbines is much worse.

When the Turbomotor Plant (TMZ) in the late 1970s and early 1980s was tasked with creating a 25 megawatt power gas turbine, it took 10 years (three samples were made that required further refinement). The last turbine was decommissioned in December 2012. In 1991, the development of a power gas turbine began in Ukraine; in 2001, RAO "UES of Russia" made a somewhat premature decision to organize serial production of the turbine at the site of the Saturn company. But it is still far from the creation of a competitive machine, - says Valery Neuimin, Ph.D.

Engineers are able to reproduce previously developed products, there is no question of creating a fundamentally new one

This is not only about the Ural Turbine Plant (UTZ is the assignee of TMZ. - Ed.), but also about other Russian manufacturers. Some time ago, at the state level, it was decided to buy gas turbines abroad, mainly in Germany. At that time, the plants curtailed the development of new gas turbines and switched for the most part to the manufacture of spare parts for them, - says Yuri Brodov. - But now the country has set the task of reviving domestic gas turbine construction, because it is impossible to depend on Western suppliers in such a responsible industry.

The same UTZ has been actively involved in the construction of combined cycle units in recent years - it supplies steam turbines for them. But along with them, foreign-made gas turbines are installed - Siemens, General Electric, Alstom, Mitsubishi.

Today, two and a half hundred imported gas turbines operate in Russia - according to the Ministry of Energy, they make up 63 percent of the total. About 300 new machines are required to modernize the industry, and by 2035 - twice as many. Therefore, the task was set to create worthy domestic developments and put production on stream. First of all, the problem is in high-power gas turbine plants - they simply do not exist, and attempts to create them have not yet been successful. So, the other day, the media reported that during the tests in December 2017, the last sample of the GTE-110 (GTE-110M - a joint development of Rosnano, Rostec and InterRAO) collapsed.

The state has high hopes for the Leningrad Metal Works (Power Machines), the largest manufacturer of steam and hydraulic turbines, which also has a joint venture with Siemens to produce gas turbines. However, as Valery Neuimin notes, if initially our side in this joint venture had 60 percent of the shares, and the Germans 40, then today the ratio is the opposite - 35 and 65.

The German company is not interested in the development of competitive equipment by Russia - years of joint work testify to this, - Neuimin expresses doubts about the effectiveness of such a partnership.

In his opinion, in order to create its own production of gas turbines, the state must support at least two enterprises in the Russian Federation so that they compete with each other. And you shouldn’t develop a high-power machine right away - it’s better to first bring to mind a small turbine, say, with a capacity of 65 megawatts, work out the technology, as they say, fill your hand and then move on to a more serious model. Otherwise, the money will be thrown to the wind: "it's like instructing an unknown firm to develop a spaceship, because a gas turbine is by no means a simple thing," the expert states.

As for the production of other types of turbines in Russia, not everything is going smoothly here either. At first glance, the capacities are quite large: today only UTZ, as RG was told at the enterprise, is capable of producing power equipment with a total capacity of up to 2.5 gigawatts per year. However, it is quite arbitrary to call the machines produced by Russian factories new: for example, the T-295 turbine, designed to replace the T-250 designed in 1967, does not differ radically from its predecessor, although a number of innovations have been introduced into it.

Today, turbine developers are mainly engaged in "buttons for a suit," Valery Neuimin believes. - In fact, now there are people left at the factories who are still able to reproduce previously developed products, but there is no question of creating a fundamentally new technology. This is a natural result of perestroika and the dashing 90s, when industrialists had to think about simply surviving. In fairness, we note: Soviet steam turbines were exceptionally reliable, a multiple margin of safety allowed power plants to operate for several decades without replacing equipment and without serious accidents. According to Valery Neuimin, modern steam turbines for thermal power plants have reached the limit of their efficiency, and the introduction of any innovations in existing designs will not radically improve this indicator. And for the time being, Russia cannot count on a quick breakthrough in gas turbine construction.

M. Vasilevsky

Today, leading foreign power engineering companies, primarily such giants as Siemens and General Electric, are actively working on the Russian market of gas turbine equipment. Offering high-quality and durable equipment, they are a serious competitor to domestic enterprises. Nevertheless, traditional Russian producers try to keep up with world standards.

At the end of August this year, our country became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This circumstance will inevitably lead to increased competition in the domestic market of power engineering. Here, as elsewhere, the law applies: "change or die." Without revising the technology and without carrying out a deep modernization, it will be almost impossible to fight the sharks of Western engineering. In this regard, issues related to the development of modern equipment operating as part of combined cycle plants (CCGTs) are becoming more and more urgent.

Over the past two decades, combined cycle technology has become the most popular in the world energy industry - it accounts for up to two thirds of all generating capacities commissioned today on the planet. This is due to the fact that in combined-cycle plants, the energy of the burned fuel is used in a binary cycle - first in a gas turbine, and then in a steam one, and therefore CCGT is more efficient than any thermal power plant (TPP) operating only in a steam cycle.

Currently, the only area in the thermal power industry in which Russia critically lags behind the world's leading manufacturers is high-capacity gas turbines - 200 MW and more. Moreover, foreign leaders have not only mastered the production of gas turbines with a unit capacity of 340 MW, but also successfully tested and use a single-shaft CCGT layout, when a gas turbine with a capacity of 340 MW and a steam turbine with a capacity of 160 MW have a common shaft. This arrangement allows to significantly reduce the construction time and the cost of the power unit.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia in March 2011 adopted the "Strategy for the development of power engineering in the Russian Federation for 2010-2020 and for the future until 2030", according to which this direction in domestic power engineering receives solid support from the state. As a result, by 2016, the Russian power engineering industry should carry out industrial development, including full-scale tests and refinement on its own test benches, of improved gas turbine units (GTP) with a capacity of 65-110 and 270-350 MW and combined-cycle plants (CCP) running on natural gas with an increase in their coefficient of performance (COP) up to 60%.

Moreover, Russia is able to produce all the main components of the CCGT - steam turbines, boilers, turbogenerators, but a modern gas turbine is not yet available. Although back in the 70s, our country was a leader in this direction, when for the first time in the world supercritical steam parameters were mastered.

In general, as a result of the implementation of the Strategy, it is assumed that the share of power unit projects using foreign main power equipment should be no more than 40% by 2015, no more than 30% by 2020, and no more than 10% by 2025 . It is believed that otherwise there may be a dangerous dependence of the stability of the unified energy system of Russia on the supply of foreign components. During the operation of power equipment, it is regularly necessary to replace a number of components and parts operating at high temperatures and pressures. At the same time, some of these components are not produced in Russia. For example, even for the domestic gas turbine GTE-110 and licensed GTE-160, some of the most important components and parts (for example, disks for rotors) are purchased only abroad.

In our market, such large and advanced concerns as Siemens and General Electric are actively and very successfully operating, which often win tenders for the supply of power equipment. There are already several generating facilities in the Russian energy system, to some extent equipped with the main energy equipment manufactured by Siemens, General Electric, etc. True, their total capacity does not yet exceed 5% of the total capacity of the Russian energy system.

However, many generating companies that use domestic equipment when replacing it still prefer to turn to firms with which they have been accustomed to work for decades. This is not just a tribute to tradition, but a justified calculation - many Russian companies have carried out a technological upgrade of production and are fighting on an equal footing with the world's power engineering giants. Today we will tell in more detail about the prospects of such large enterprises as OJSC Kaluga Turbine Plant (Kaluga), CJSC Ural Turbine Plant (Yekaterinburg), NPO Saturn (Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Region), Leningrad Metal Works (St. Petersburg), Perm Engine Building Complex (Perm Territory).

OJSC "Kaluga Turbine Plant"

OJSC Kaluga Turbine Works produces steam turbines of small and medium power (up to 80 MW) for driving electric generators, drive steam turbines, block turbine generators, steam geothermal turbines, etc. (Fig. 1).

Fig.1

The plant was founded in 1946, and four years later the first 10 turbines of our own design (OP300) were produced. To date, the plant has produced more than 2,640 power plants with a total capacity of 17,091 MW for energy facilities in Russia, the CIS countries and far abroad.

Today, the enterprise is part of the power machine building concern Power Machines. One of the practical results of the affiliation was the introduction since January 2012 of the SAP ERP information solution based on the current prototype, successfully used at Power Machines OJSC, instead of the Baan system previously used at KTZ. The information system being created will allow the enterprise to reach a new level of production automation, modernize its business processes based on the best practices of world leaders in the engineering industry, and improve the accuracy and efficiency of management decisions.

The plant's products are in stable demand in Russia and abroad. The company has a large portfolio of orders for gas turbine and steam turbine equipment. In 2011, two T-60/73 steam turbines were manufactured and presented to the Customer for the Ufimskaya CHPP No. 5 - the most powerful units manufactured by KTZ OJSC today. One of the latest projects is the contract with Soyuz Energy Construction Corporation OJSC, under which KTZ manufactured two steam turbines for the branch of Ilim Group OJSC in Bratsk (Irkutsk Region), intended for the reconstruction of the turbine department of TPP-3 . Under the terms of the contract, two back-pressure turbines - R-27-8.8/1.35 with a capacity of 27 MW and R-32-8.8/0.65 with a capacity of 32 MW - were delivered this summer.

In recent years, non-traditional energy sources, including geothermal steam, have been increasingly used in the world. Geothermal power plants (GeoPS) can be called one of the cheapest and most reliable sources of electricity, since they do not depend on delivery conditions and fuel prices. The initiator of the development of geothermal energy in Russia in recent years was the firm "Geotherm". OJSC "Kaluga Turbine Plant" acted as the base enterprise for the supply of power plants for the orders of this company. The appeal to KTP was not accidental, since one of the main problems of geothermal turbines - operation on wet steam - was practically solved at the enterprise. This problem boils down to the need to protect the blades of the last stages from erosion. A common method of protection is the installation of special overlays made of erosion-resistant materials. To protect against erosion, KTZ applies a method based on combating not the consequence, but the very cause of erosion - with coarse moisture.

In 1999, the Verkhne-Mutnovskaya GeoPP in Kamchatka with a capacity of 12 MW was put into operation - all the equipment of power units for the station was supplied from Kaluga under a contract with Geoterm. Almost all turbine units supplied for geothermal power plants in Russia (Pauzhetskaya, Yuzhno-Kurilskaya on Kushashir Island, Verkhne-Mutnovskaya, Mutnovskaya GeoPP) were manufactured by the Kaluga Turbine Plant. To date, the enterprise has accumulated extensive experience in creating geothermal turbine plants of any size from 0.5 to 50 MW. Today OJSC "Kaluga Turbine Plant" is the most qualified turbine plant in Russia in terms of geothermal topics.

CJSC "UTZ" (Ural Turbine Works)

The enterprise is historically located in Yekaterinburg and is part of the Renova group of companies. The first steam turbine AT-12 with a capacity of 12 thousand kW was assembled and tested by the Ural turbine builders in May 1941. Despite the fact that it was the first UTZ turbine, it worked reliably for 48 years.

Now the Ural Turbine Works is one of the leading machine-building enterprises in Russia for the design and production of medium and large power steam cogeneration turbines, condensing turbines, backpressure steam turbines, crumpled steam turbines, gas compressor units, gas turbine power plants, etc. Turbines manufactured by UTZ, make up about 50% of all cogeneration turbines operating in Russia and the CIS. For more than 70 years of operation, the plant has delivered 861 steam turbines with a total capacity of 60,000 MW to power plants in various countries.

The company has developed a whole family of steam turbines for steam power plants of various types. In addition, UTW specialists are developing and preparing the production of turbines for combined-cycle plants - options for combined-cycle plants with a capacity of 95-450 MW have been worked out. For installations with a capacity of 90-100 MW, a single-cylinder steam cogeneration turbine T-35 / 47-7.4 is offered. For a double-circuit steam-gas plant with a capacity of 170-230 MW, it is proposed to use a T-53 / 67-8.0 heat-extraction steam turbine, which, while maintaining the design and depending on the steam parameters, can be marked from T-45 / 60-7.2 to T- 55/70-8.2. On the basis of this turbine, the plant can produce condensing steam turbines with a capacity of 60-70 MW.

According to Denis Chichagin, First Deputy General Director of UTZ CJSC, domestic machine tool and mechanical engineering currently does not reach the world level. For the modernization of enterprises, it is necessary to give a green light to high-tech equipment, so the company is currently changing its technology policy. In close cooperation with specialists from CJSC ROTEK and Sulzer (Switzerland), the plant is modernizing management and technological schemes for the successful development and adaptation of foreign advanced technologies, which will significantly strengthen the company's position in the market. The enterprise continues to develop optimal design solutions for the main turbine equipment, while offering the customer modern service solutions, including those based on long-term post-warranty maintenance of steam and gas turbines. In 2009-2011 the plant invested more than 500 million rubles in technical re-equipment programs. to ensure the existing portfolio of orders and reach the design capacity of 1.8 GW of turbine equipment per year. In February 2012, within the framework of this program, UTZ purchased high-performance metalworking equipment for the production of turbine blades - two 5-axis CNC machining centers MILL-800 SK with a rotary spindle (Fig. 2) from Chiron-Werke GmbH & Co KG (Germany) )

Fig.2

Specialized software supplied with the equipment can reduce machine time by up to 20-30% compared to universal CAM systems. Installation and commissioning of new machines was carried out by Chiron specialists. As part of the agreement, teleservice was tested - remote diagnostics of machine tools, prevention or correction of errors and accidents. Through a secure dedicated channel, Chiron service engineers record the operation of the equipment online and issue recommendations for the production of UTZ.

Turbine equipment manufactured by UTZ consistently finds customers even in the face of fierce competition from foreign manufacturers. At the end of February 2012, the Ural Turbine Works manufactured a new steam turbine with a capacity of 65 MW for the Barnaul CHPP-2 of OAO Kuzbassenergo. The new T-60/65-130-2M turbine, st. no. 8, was successfully tested on a barring device at the UTZ assembly stand. The test report was signed by the customer's representatives without comment. The new equipment is being installed to replace the exhausted and decommissioned T-55-130 turbine, also manufactured at the Ural Turbine Plant. It should be noted that the T-60/65-130-2M two-cylinder turbine is a serial model produced by CJSC UTZ - a continuation of the serial line of steam turbines T-55 and T-50, which have proven themselves over many years of operation at thermal power plants in Russia and the CIS. The new turbines use modern components and modified elements that improve the technical and economic performance of the turbine plant (Fig. 3).

Fig.3

UTZ supplied a similar turbine for the Abakan CHPP (Khakassia). The turbine will be the basis of the new power unit of the Abakan CHPP: with its launch, the total capacity of the station should increase to 390 MW. The commissioning of the new power unit will increase electricity generation by 700-900 million kWh per year and significantly improve the reliability of the region's energy supply. Commissioning of the plant is planned for the end of next year. The turbine is equipped with two PSG-2300 network water heaters and a KG-6200 condenser group, as well as a TVF-125-2U3 hydrogen-cooled turbogenerator manufactured by NPO ElSib.

Recently, a new T-50/60-8.8 single-cylinder steam turbine manufactured for the Petropavlovsk CHPP-2 (SevKazEnergo JSC) was successfully tested at the UTZ assembly stand. The new Ural-made turbine should replace the previously operating two-cylinder Czech turbine P-33-90/1.3 from Skoda, and will be mounted on the same foundation. The project for the replacement of the turbine was prepared by the Institute of KazNIPIEnergoprom JSC, with which UTZ CJSC has been fruitfully cooperating for a long time. Long-standing ties with the former Soviet republics are not weakening either: for example, at the moment the issue of the supply of several Ural turbines for the thermal power station of Kazakhstan is at the stage of negotiations.

NPO Saturn

NPO Saturn is a developer and manufacturer of industrial gas turbine equipment of small, medium and high power for use at thermal power plants, industrial enterprises and oil and gas fields. This is one of the oldest industrial enterprises in Russia: in 1916, it was decided to create five automobile plants on the basis of a state loan, including in the city of Rybinsk (JSC Russian Renault). In the post-revolutionary years, the plant worked on the development and production of aircraft engines. In the early 90s. The Rybinsk Motor-Building Plant was transformed into Rybinsk Motors OJSC. In 2001, after its merger with the Rybinsk Engine Design Bureau (JSC A. Lyulka-Saturn), the company received its current name and began to produce gas turbines for the energy and gas industries. In the line of manufactured products, first of all, it is necessary to name industrial gas twin-shaft turbines GTD-6RM and GTD-8RM, used to drive electric generators as part of gas turbine units GTA-6 / 8RM, which are used in gas turbine thermal power plants of medium power (from 6 to 64 MW and above) . The company also produces a family of unified gas turbines GTD-4 / 6.3 / 10RM for use as part of gas compressor units and thermal power plants (from 4 MW and above). For low power plants (from 2.5 MW and above), the DO49R unit is produced - a single-shaft gas turbine with an integrated coaxial gearbox. In addition to "ground" units, the company manufactures marine gas turbines M75RU, M70FRU, E70 / 8RD, used to drive electric generators and gas compressors as part of offshore and coastal industrial facilities of low and medium power (from 4 MW and above).

In 2003, interdepartmental testing of the GTD-110 unit, the first Russian gas turbine with a capacity of more than 100 MW, was carried out (Fig. 4).

Fig.4

GTD-110 is a single-shaft gas turbine for use as part of power and steam-gas plants of high power (from 110 to 495 MW and more), created within the framework of the Federal Target Program "Fuel and Energy" for the needs of the domestic energy system and is so far the only Russian development in in the field of high power gas turbine engineering. Currently, five GTD-110s are operated by Gazpromenergoholding (GEH) and Inter RAO. However, according to Inter RAO specialists, only the newest unit, launched in early March, is operating normally. The rest are currently unstable and serviced under the manufacturer's warranty.

According to Alexander Ivanov, Director for Gas Turbine and Power Plants of NPO Saturn, as in the case of any new high-tech product, this is a completely natural process when defects are detected and the company is actively working to eliminate them. During maintenance, the most critical components are checked and, if necessary, the manufacturer replaces parts at its own expense without stopping the operation of the turbine.

Recently JSC Engineering Center Gas Turbine Technologies (JSC NPO Saturn together with JSC INTER RAO UES) won the competition of JSC RUSNANO to create an engineering center that will deal with innovative products, in particular, the creation of GTD-110M (Fig. . 5), a modernized gas turbine engine GTD-110 with a capacity of 110 MW.

Fig.5

In fact, the new engineering center will bring the technical and economic characteristics of the GTD-110 to the best world standards in this power class; the engine will be improved and finalized, it is planned to create a combustion chamber that provides an acceptable level of harmful emissions of NOx 50 mg/m3. In addition, it is planned to use nanostructured coating technologies in engine production, which will increase the reliability of the hot part of the turbine, increase the resource of the most worn parts and the entire engine as a whole. GTD-110M will become the basis for the creation of Russian high-capacity CCGTs. All complex work on the GTD-110M project is designed for 2-3 years.

OJSC "Leningrad Metal Works"

The Leningrad Metal Works is a unique enterprise. The history of the plant dates back to 1857, when the personal Decree of Emperor Alexander II "On the establishment of the Joint Stock Company" St. Petersburg Metal Plant "on the basis of the Charter" was issued. The production of steam turbines here began in 1907, hydraulic - in 1924, gas - in 1956. To date, more than 2,700 steam and over 780 hydraulic turbines have been manufactured at LMZ. Today it is one of the largest power engineering enterprises in Russia, which is part of OJSC Power Machines, which designs, manufactures and services a wide range of steam and hydraulic turbines of various capacities. Among the recent developments of the plant is the GTE-65 gas turbine unit with a capacity of 65 MW. It is a single-shaft unit designed to drive a turbogenerator and capable of carrying base, semi-peak and peak loads both independently and as part of a combined cycle unit. The GTE-65 gas turbine plant can be used in various types of steam-gas units for the modernization of existing and construction of new power plants of condensing and cogeneration type. In terms of price and technical characteristics, the GTE-65, as a medium-power machine, meets the capabilities and needs of domestic power plants and power systems.

In the early 2000s OJSC LMZ signed an agreement with Siemens for the right to manufacture and sell in the Russian Federation and Belarus a gas turbine plant GTE-160 with a capacity of 160 MW (Fig. 6).

Fig.6

The prototype of the unit is the gas turbine V94.2 from Siemens, the documentation of which has been changed taking into account the capabilities of OAO LMZ and its partners. Just such a turbine, produced at JSC "Leningrad Metal Works", within the framework of the contract between CJSC "IES" and JSC "Power Machines" was delivered last summer to Perm CHPP-9.

Cooperation with German turbine builders continues. In December 2011, OJSC Power Machines and Siemens signed an agreement to establish a joint venture in Russia for the production and maintenance of gas turbines, Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies. This project was carried out on the basis of Interturbo LLC, which has been a joint venture of partners since 1991. The new company is engaged in the research and development of new gas turbines, the localization of production in Russia, the assembly, sale, project management and maintenance of class E high-power gas turbines and F with a capacity of 168 to 292 MW. This area of ​​activity of Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies is linked to the requirement of the Power Engineering Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for 2010-2020 and for the period up to 2030. organize in the near future at the Leningrad Metal Plant a large-scale production of licensed high-capacity gas turbines (about 300 MW) with the transition from the GTE-160 (V94.2) developed by Siemens in the 80s. to more modern gas turbines.

Russia has found a way to circumvent Western sanctions for the sake of the most important state task - the construction of the Crimean power plants. The turbines produced by the German company Siemens, which are necessary for the operation of the stations, have been delivered to the peninsula. However, how did it happen that our country was unable to develop such equipment itself?

Russia has delivered two of the four gas turbines to Crimea for use at the Sevastopol power plant, Reuters reported yesterday, citing sources. According to them, turbines of the SGT5-2000E model of the German concern Siemens were delivered to the port of Sevastopol.

Russia is building two power plants with a capacity of 940 megawatts in Crimea, and earlier the supply of Siemens turbines to them was frozen due to Western sanctions. However, apparently, a solution was found: these turbines were supplied by some third-party companies, and not by Siemens itself.

Russian companies mass-produce only turbines for low-capacity power plants. For example, the capacity of the GTE-25P gas turbine is 25 MW. But modern power plants reach a capacity of 400-450 MW (as in the Crimea), and they need more powerful turbines - 160-290 MW. The turbine delivered to Sevastopol has exactly the required capacity of 168 MW. Russia is forced to find ways to circumvent Western sanctions in order to fulfill the program to ensure the energy security of the Crimean peninsula.

How did it happen that in Russia there are no technologies and sites for the production of high-capacity gas turbines?

After the collapse of the USSR in the 90s and early 2000s, Russian power engineering was on the verge of survival. But then a massive program for the construction of power plants began, that is, there was a demand for the products of Russian machine-building plants. But instead of creating their own product in Russia, a different path was chosen - and, at first glance, very logical. Why reinvent the wheel, spend a lot of time and money on development, research and production, if you can buy already modern and ready-made abroad.

“In the 2000s, we built gas turbine power plants with GE and Siemens turbines. Thus, they hooked our already poor energy on the needle of Western companies. Now a lot of money is paid for the maintenance of foreign turbines. An hour of work for a Siemens service engineer costs as much as a month's salary for a mechanic at this power plant. In the 2000s, it was necessary not to build gas turbine power plants, but to modernize our main generating facilities,” says Maxim Muratshin, CEO of Powerz engineering company.

“I am engaged in production, and I was always offended when earlier the top management said that we would buy everything abroad, because ours do not know how to do anything. Now everyone is awake, but time has passed. Already there is no such demand to create a new turbine to replace the Siemens one. But at that time it was possible to create your own high-capacity turbine and sell it to 30 gas turbine power plants. That's what the Germans would do. And the Russians just bought these 30 turbines from foreigners,” adds the interlocutor.

Now the main problem in power engineering is the wear and tear of machinery and equipment in the absence of high demand. More precisely, there is a demand from power plants, where outdated equipment must be urgently replaced. However, they don't have the money to do so.

“Power plants do not have enough money to carry out large-scale modernization in the face of a strict tariff policy regulated by the state. Power plants cannot sell electricity at a price that would earn them a quick upgrade. We have very cheap electricity compared to Western countries,” says Muratshin.

Therefore, the situation in the energy industry cannot be called rosy. For example, at one time the largest boiler plant in the Soviet Union, Krasny Kotelshchik (part of Power Machines), at its peak produced 40 large-capacity boilers per year, and now only one or two per year. “There is no demand, and the capacities that were in the Soviet Union have been lost. But we still have the basic technologies, so within two or three years our plants can again produce 40-50 boilers a year. It's a matter of time and money. But here we are dragged to the last, and then they want to quickly do everything in two days, ”muratshin worries.

Demand for gas turbines is even more difficult, because generating electricity from gas boilers is expensive. No one in the world builds its power industry only on this type of generation, as a rule, there is the main generating capacity, and gas turbine power plants supplement it. The advantage of gas turbine stations is that they are quickly connected and provide energy to the network, which is important during peak periods of consumption (morning and evening). Whereas, for example, steam or coal-fired boilers require several hours to cook. “In addition, there is no coal in Crimea, but it has its own gas, plus a gas pipeline is being pulled from the Russian mainland,” Muratshin explains the logic according to which a gas-fired power plant was chosen for Crimea.

But there is another reason why Russia bought German, and not domestic, turbines for power plants under construction in Crimea. The development of domestic analogues is already underway. We are talking about the GTD-110M gas turbine, which is being modernized and finalized at the United Engine Corporation together with Inter RAO and Rosnano. This turbine was developed in the 90s and 2000s, it was even used at Ivanovskaya GRES and Ryazanskaya GRES in the late 2000s. However, the product turned out to be with many "childhood diseases". Actually, NPO "Saturn" is now engaged in their treatment.

And since the project of the Crimean power plants is extremely important from many points of view, apparently, for the sake of reliability, it was decided not to use crude domestic turbine for it. The UEC explained that they would not have time to finalize their turbine before the start of construction of stations in the Crimea. By the end of this year, only a prototype of the modernized GTD-110M will be created. While the launch of the first blocks of two thermal power plants in Simferopol and Sevastopol is promised by the beginning of 2018.

However, if it were not for the sanctions, then there would be no serious problems with turbines for Crimea. Moreover, even Siemens turbines are not a purely imported product. Aleksey Kalachev from IK "Finam" notes that turbines for the Crimean thermal power plants could be produced in Russia, at the St. Petersburg plant "Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies".

“Of course, this is a subsidiary of Siemens, and for sure some of the components are supplied for assembly from European factories. But still, this is a joint venture, and production is localized on Russian territory and for Russian needs,” says Kalachev. That is, Russia not only buys foreign turbines, but also forced foreigners to invest in production on Russian territory. According to Kalachev, it is precisely the creation of a joint venture in Russia with foreign partners that makes it possible to quickly and effectively overcome the technological gap.

“Without the participation of foreign partners, the creation of independent and completely independent technologies and technological platforms is theoretically possible, but it will require significant time and money,” the expert explains. Moreover, money is needed not only for the modernization of production, but also for training, research and development, engineering schools, etc. By the way, it took Siemens 10 years to create the SGT5-8000H turbine.

The real origin of the turbines delivered to the Crimea turned out to be quite understandable. According to Technopromexport, four sets of turbines for power facilities in Crimea were purchased on the secondary market. And he, as you know, is not subject to sanctions.

Analysts predict the onset of an era of gas. No one doubts the high efficiency of combined cycle plants. Increasingly, they are talking about the need for distributed generation, and based not on diesel fuel, but on cleaner sources. It would seem that there are all conditions for the rapid development of the market for ground-based gas turbines.

looking back

Historically, in our country, the production of steam turbines has developed more actively than gas turbines. At the leading enterprises producing turbines for the power industry - the Nevsky Plant (St. Petersburg) and the Ural Turbine Plant (UTZ, Yekaterinburg), the first gas turbines were produced only in the 1950s. In the Soviet Union, stakes were placed on coal, oil and other calorific sources.

Gas turbines were developed primarily for aircraft construction. It is not surprising that competences in the development of industrial gas turbines (including power ones) sometimes go back to the creators of aircraft engines. So, in the 1990s. On the basis of NPP "Mashproekt" (Ukraine), the development of power gas turbines based on engines created by NPO "Saturn" for aircraft began. Today, the production of ground power equipment based on NPO Saturn engines is carried out by Saturn - Gas Turbines OJSC (Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Region, part of the United Engine Corporation OJSC).

A similar story took place at OJSC Perm Motor Plant, which mastered the production of gas turbine power plants based on the developments of OJSC Aviadvigatel (Perm).

Probably, all this predetermined the current state of affairs. And it is such that today there is no talk of a boom in the gas turbine market - this is recognized by both manufacturers and sellers, as well as buyers. Rather, it is stabilizing.

The market for gas pumping and power generating gas turbine equipment in the range of unit capacity 2.5- 25 MW for 2010-12 (Source: Lift Force magazine)

Cooperation is on trend

The number of enterprises producing gas turbines in our country is very limited, no more than ten. There are even fewer enterprises producing ground equipment based on gas turbines. Among them are the already mentioned CJSC Nevsky Plant (part of CJSC REP Holding), OJSC Saturn - Gas Turbines and OJSC Perm Motor Plant. At the same time, in general, the nominal generated power of the serial products of these enterprises does not exceed 25 MW. There are several machines put into operation with a unit capacity of 110 MW based on the developments of NPO Saturn, but today the design of the hot part of these industrial turbines continues to be fine-tuned.

For this reason, high-capacity turbines for creating large generation facilities are supplied mainly by foreign companies. Russian enterprises with similar competencies are striving to enter into cooperation with world leaders, which are General Electric, Alstom, Siemens and Solar Turbines (a subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc).

For example, OJSC Power Machines (St. Petersburg), which previously produced its own gas turbines, is now developing this area only in cooperation with Siemens. In 2011, a joint venture, OOO Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies, was established. The tasks of the joint venture are not only production, but also the development of new products.

CJSC UTZ also suspended the production of gas turbines developed several decades ago. According to Mikhail Lifshits, Chairman of the Board of Directors of UTZ, the company today operates in a highly competitive environment. Accordingly, a number of applied solutions are the transfer of technologies from abroad. In 2014, localization of the production of components for the hot path of large gas turbines is planned here - this is one of the key areas of development for the plant.

OAO Saturn - Gas Turbines offers a package (complete unit) on the market based on turbines produced by Solar Turbines, GE and Rolls-Royce. REP Holding cooperates with GE Oil & Gas (Nuovo Pignone S.p.A.).

At the production facilities of Nevsky Zavod CJSC (photo by REP Holding CJSC)

Powerful Turbines: Unpredictable Demand

At the same time, not all world leaders are interested in organizing the production of high-capacity gas turbines in Russia, and one of the reasons for this is the unstable demand for products. For example, Alstom, which has joint ventures in Russia and the world in a number of areas, has so far refrained from creating gas turbine production in our country. So the large supply projects implemented by the company are provided by imports.

“Over the past few years, the growth in demand for gas turbines in Russia has been determined by the CSA mechanisms [Power Delivery Agreements - Note. ed.], - explains Andrey Lavrinenko, vice president of Alstom Power in Russia, the CIS countries and Georgia. — Now all the main equipment has been contracted under the CSA, demand has decreased accordingly, and all energy market participants live in an era of expectation of changes. The absence of a new incentive mechanism and an approved market model significantly complicates long-term, medium-term and operational planning for the implementation of certain projects.

It should be noted that the demand for gas turbines also depends on the level of energy consumption. Energy consumption in Russia has been growing steadily since 2010. But, according to experts, after several years of growth in demand for electricity in Russia, stagnation may occur, an increase in demand in 2013-2014. will be about 1% per year or even less.

“The biggest challenge for turbine manufacturers is predicting market demand in a volatile environment,” admits Pierpaolo Mazza, general manager of GE's power distribution business in Russia and the CIS.

According to Dmitry Solovyov, Deputy Chief Designer of JSC Saturn - Gas Turbines, similar reasons prevent Russian companies from mastering the production of high-capacity gas turbines.

“The production of powerful gas turbine units (GTP) requires special equipment, machines of large diameters, vacuum welding units with chambers of the order of 5 by 5 m,” he says. - To create such a production, you need to be confident in the sales market. And for this, the country should have a long-term program for the development of the energy sector, perhaps then enterprises will begin to invest in the modernization of the base.”

GT 24/ GT 26 gas turbine testing (photo by Alstom)

Medium - in the lead

However, the lack of predictable prospects should not be interpreted as a lack of demand. There is certainly a demand, including for turbines with a capacity of more than 150 MW, and the proof of this is the projects carried out with their use by order of large generating companies - Fortum, IES Holding, etc. However, according to Andrey Lavrinenko, in connection with the completion of the CSA program is expected to increase interest in power units of smaller capacity, requiring less capital costs, but at the same time decisive issues of increasing energy efficiency and payback.

“Now the demand is primarily for small gas turbines, which are becoming more common in the ever-growing sector of distributed energy generation,” Pierpaolo Mazza also notes. “This market will benefit from versatile, economical and reliable installations such as aircraft-powered gas turbines.”

Gas turbines with a capacity of 4, 8, 16, 25 MW are a segment in which Russian manufacturers, who have already felt the market trend, mainly operate. Thus, REP Holding notes that at the moment, units with a capacity of 16-25 MW are in greatest demand, as well as a little less - 4-12 MW, which can be operated both at new construction sites and at reconstructed stations. Not surprisingly, the company is now working on a new 16 MW unit in collaboration with GE.

Dmitry Solovyov also connects the growth of the sales market with the development of the regional energy sector and the commissioning of medium-capacity generating facilities. For example, now, within the framework of the pilot project of the Energy Efficiency Improvement Program of the regions of the Russian Federation, Saturn - Gas Turbines is completing construction and putting into operation CCGT-CHPP-52 in the city of Tutaev, Yaroslavl Region, where four gas turbine units of 8 MW each will be installed. Based on the market situation, the main product that the company is working on today is power units with a capacity of 10-25 MW.

At the same time, the development of small distributed generation facilities based on gas turbines owned by industrial enterprises is still less promising. “Suppose, during the day, the enterprise uses the energy of the gas turbine for its own needs, but where should it be directed at night? D. Solovyov poses the question. - It turns out that it is necessary to trade on the electricity market, and this is not so simple, agreements with the energy system are needed. If an enterprise does not use its generation facility at full capacity, then its payback suffers.”

Small but useful

As is known, the pace of development of distributed generation (in particular, with the use of gas turbine power plants) in Russia is still significantly lower than in developed countries, where low-capacity cogeneration units are common. The situation will change with us, the only question is when.

Production of gas turbines (photo by OAO Saturn - Gas Turbines)

“With the rise in energy prices, enterprises that have their own gas boilers are increasingly asking themselves the question of increasing energy efficiency,” says Alexander Sidorov, technical director of Turboenergy and Service LLC (Perm). “For these purposes, when heat generation is a paramount task, and electricity generation is a factor in increasing energy efficiency, small-capacity gas turbine units are being used.”

Nevertheless, A. Sidorov admits that the main difficulty for companies supplying small-capacity turbines is the insufficient solvency of potential customers. Still, despite the low cost of energy generated by gas turbines, the initial cost of equipment, which is determined by the cost of materials, the complexity of manufacturing and assembly technologies, is quite high.

In addition, microturbines have to compete with gas power plants, and the advantage is not always on the side of the former, although microturbine systems have their advantages - fewer moving parts and higher generated power per unit area. In addition, the main part of the released thermal energy is not distributed, but concentrated in one place, which creates an opportunity for its further use.

In the service of the oil industry

It is impossible not to mention one more, traditional segment of the gas turbine market - generation facilities at oil and gas fields and main gas pipelines. The reasons for the popularity of gas turbines are obvious here - the fuel, as they say, is "at hand". Gas turbine power plants make it possible to effectively utilize associated petroleum gas, solving not only the problem of energy supply, but also the rational use of hydrocarbon resources.

According to the observations of specialists from OAO Saturn - Gas Turbines, in the pre-crisis 2006-2008. there was a surge in demand from the oil industry. Moreover, turbines were introduced to process associated petroleum gas and generate electricity not only for the needs of fields, but also for the population. The company received a large number of such orders from OAO TNK-BP. Today, demand is at a stable level. Naturally, manufacturers are improving turbines for this market.

“In our opinion, at the enterprises engaged in oil production in fields with a low (absent) gas factor, the newly developed turbines with a capacity of 1.8 MW, operating on crude oil and complex fuels, should be in demand,” Alexander Sidorov shares his opinion. “Another additional direction of development is the use of radial turbines as installations operating on gas with a high content of hydrogen sulfide (up to 5%), which makes it possible to do without the design and construction of additional gas treatment units.”

It should be noted that structurally radial turbines differ from the more common axial ones in the organization of the movement of air and heat flows. Radial are designed primarily for the power supply of small consumers. REP Holding experts note that radial turbines have advantages in terms of efficiency at low flow rates of the working fluid, but it is difficult for them to ensure operability at high temperatures. Accordingly, they find wide application in low-temperature utilization plants and in ceramic microturbines. For other areas, only axial turbines are still suitable (and used).

GTES-12, Rybinsk (photo by JSC Saturn - Gas Turbines)

Get even better

Obviously, modern trends in improving gas turbines are not limited to innovations for the oil industry. Let's take a few more examples.

First of all, all manufacturers strive to increase efficiency. Russian companies note that, when developing new products, it is important for them to surpass the products of foreign competitors precisely in this indicator, and not only (and not so much) in terms of power. However, if here we are talking about a coefficient of 34%, then Western colleagues are already aiming at 38% efficiency. The Alstom GT13E2 turbine, upgraded in 2012, achieved this level of efficiency in a simple cycle while improving performance across the entire load range.

Another direction is to reduce the number of nodes in the turbine in order to increase reliability, reduce maintenance and reduce downtime during condition diagnostics. It is difficult to say whether such steps in improving the design will help to radically move forward in solving the problem of the high cost of maintenance, which Russian companies that bought imported turbines began to complain about a few years ago. But let's hope so.

The creators of turbines also strive to make them unpretentious to the characteristics of the gas used in the installations and to provide the ability to operate on liquid fuel. In the West, there is also concern that, regardless of the composition of the gas used, the turbine has good environmental performance.

GTES-12 Penyagino, Moscow (photo by JSC Saturn - Gas Turbines)

For the energy of the future

And, finally, another important area of ​​improvement is associated with the rapid development of generation based on renewable energy sources in the world and the prospects for the introduction of "smart grids".

Initially, gas turbines were created as equipment that provides constant power output, but the introduction of RES into the power system automatically requires flexibility from other generation facilities. This flexibility makes it possible to ensure a stable power level in the network when there is insufficient renewable energy generation, for example, on calm or cloudy days.

Accordingly, a turbine for a smart grid must easily adapt to changes in the network and be designed for regular starts and stops without loss of resource, which was not possible in the case of traditional gas turbines. Certain progress in this direction has already been achieved. For example, GE says the new FlexEfficiency gas turbine can scale down from 750 MW to 100 MW and then ramp up in 13 minutes, and will be up to 71% efficient when used with solar power.

However, for the foreseeable future, the most common way to use gas turbines will still be their usual combination with steam turbines in combined cycle plants. And our country still has a long way to go before it can be said that the market is sufficiently saturated with such cogeneration facilities.

Kira Patrakova

On the first photo: 3D model of the gas turbine GT13E2 (Alstom)
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