Combined cycle design flexibility in today's market

In the power generation industry, non utility generators (NUG's) comprise a significant portion of new generation growth as electricity demands exceed existing utility capacities. These NUG's are developed by customers with widely varying experiences; bankers, lawyers, architect engineers, original equipment manufacturers, and other organizations involved in such diverse industries as petrochemical, pulp and paper, and steel making. The demands of these customers can be significantly varied in terms of features such as capacity factor, operability, maintainability, equipment redundancy, acceptable design practices, and many others. In addition, both the utility and NUG industries demand flexibility due to external influences such as regulatory policies, environmental conditions new design technologies, and emerging global markets. All of these factors are subject to wide variation across different market regions and even within a given region. This paper discusses the development of a reference plant design approach which focuses on customer flexibility while maximizing the use of proven designs. This approach allows basic system designs to be modified in a modular fashion to meet the differing demands of utility and NUG customers