Prospects for Russian gas turbine manufacturers. Problems and prospects of the gas turbine market in Russia Production of gas turbines

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 seem to have forgotten how to make turbines for power plants ourselves and bowed to Western companies, which are now forced to wind down their deliveries and thus leave Russia without turbines for energy.

"The project envisaged that Siemens turbines would 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. Officials Siemens have always said that they do not intend to implement supply of equipment.
Russia studied the possibility of acquiring turbines from Iran, making changes to the design for the installation of Russian-made turbines, as well as using Western turbines previously acquired by Russia and already located on its territory. Each of these alternatives poses specific challenges, which, according to sources, prevents officials and project leaders from agreeing on how to move forward.
This story demonstrates that, despite official denials, Western sanctions still 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-ranking officials, according to sources close to the Kremlin, to make grandiose political promises that are almost impossible to implement. "

"Back in October 2016, at a briefing in Munich, the company representatives said that Siemens excludes the use of its gas turbines at TPPs in Crimea. We are talking about gas turbines produced 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 the contract signed in the spring of 2016 specifies a TPP in Taman. "

In fact, it so happened that since the times of the USSR, the production of gas turbine plants 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 producing Siemens turbines under license.

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

It is not clear where their developments, which were successfully produced there during the previous 40 years, have gone. As a result, the domestic power engineering industry (gas turbine engineering) was left with nothing. Now I have to begging overseas in search of turbines. Even in Iran.

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

M. Vasilevsky

Today, the leading foreign power engineering companies, primarily such giants as Siemens and General Electric, are actively working on the Russian gas turbine equipment market. By offering high-quality and durable equipment, they are a serious competitor to domestic enterprises. Nevertheless, traditional Russian manufacturers are trying 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 for power engineering. Here, as elsewhere, the law applies: "change or die." Without revising technologies and without deep modernization, it will be almost impossible to fight the sharks of Western engineering. In this regard, the issues related to the development of modern equipment operating as part of combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) are becoming more and more urgent.

In the past two decades, combined-cycle technology has become the most popular in the world energy sector - it accounts for up to two-thirds of all generating capacities commissioned on the planet today. This is due to the fact that in combined-cycle plants the energy of the combusted fuel is used in a binary cycle - first in a gas turbine, and then in a steam one, and therefore a 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 is critically lagging behind the world's leading manufacturers is high-capacity gas turbines - 200 MW and above. Moreover, foreign leaders not only mastered the production of gas turbines with a unit capacity of 340 MW, but also successfully tested and apply a single-shaft CCGT unit, 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 can significantly reduce the construction time and cost of the power unit.

In March 2011, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia adopted the "Strategy for the Development of Power Machine Building of the Russian Federation for 2010-2020 and for the Long Term until 2030", in accordance with which this direction in the domestic power engineering industry receives solid support from the state. As a result, the Russian power engineering industry by 2016 should carry out industrial development, including full-scale tests and revision at its own test benches, improved gas turbine plants (GTU) with a capacity of 65-110 and 270-350 MW and combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) on natural gas with an increase their coefficient of performance (COP) up to 60%.

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

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 required to replace a number of units 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 units and parts (for example, discs 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 one degree or another equipped with the main energy equipment produced by Siemens, General Electric, etc. However, 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 contact firms with which they are accustomed to working for more than a decade. This is not just a tribute to tradition, but a justified calculation - many Russian companies have carried out a technological renovation of production and are fighting on an equal footing with the world's power machine-building giants. Today we will tell you 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 Plant (St. Petersburg), Perm Engine Building Complex (Perm Territory).

JSC "Kaluga Turbine Works"

OJSC Kaluga Turbine Works produces steam turbines of low and medium power (up to 80 MW) for driving electric generators, drive steam turbines, modular 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 its own design (OR300) were produced. To date, the plant has produced more than 2,640 power plants with a total capacity of 17091 MW for power facilities in Russia, the CIS countries and far abroad.

Nowadays the enterprise is a part of the Power Machines power engineering concern. One of the practical results of the affiliation was the introduction, since January 2012, of an SAP ERP information solution based on a working prototype successfully used at Power Machines, 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 enterprise 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 Ufimskaya CHPP No. 5 - the most powerful units produced by KTZ to date. One of the latest projects can be called a contract with OJSC Energy-Building Corporation Soyuz, within the framework of which KTZ manufactured two steam turbines for the branch of OJSC Ilim Group in Bratsk (Irkutsk Region), intended for the reconstruction of the turbine department of TPP-3 ... Under the terms of the agreement, 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, unconventional energy sources, including geothermal steam, have been increasingly used in the world. Geothermal power plants (GeoPPs) 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 company "Geotherm". Kaluga Turbine Works OJSC acted as the basic enterprise for the supply of power plants for the orders of this company. The appeal to KTZ was not accidental, since the enterprise practically solved one of the main problems of geothermal turbines - operation on wet steam. This problem boils down to the need to protect the working blades of the last stages from erosion. A common method of protection is the installation of special pads made of erosion-resistant materials. To protect against erosion, KTZ uses a method based on combating not with the consequence, but with 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 equipment for power units for the station was supplied from Kaluga under a contract with Geotherm. Almost all turbine plants supplied for geothermal power plants in Russia (Pauzhetskaya, Yuzhno-Kurilskaya on Kushashir Island, Verkhne-Mutnovskaya, Mutnovskaya GeoPPs) were manufactured by the Kaluga Turbine Plant. To date, the company has accumulated extensive experience in creating geothermal turbine plants of any standard size from 0.5 to 50 MW. Today Kaluga Turbine Works OJSC is the most qualified turbine plant in Russia in geothermal field.

UTW CJSC (Ural Turbine Works)

The enterprise is historically located in Yekaterinburg and is part of the Renova group of companies. The first AT-12 steam turbine 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 steam heating turbines of medium and high power, condensing turbines, back pressure steam turbines, crumpled steam turbines, gas pumping units, power gas turbine units, etc. Turbines manufactured by UTZ, make up about 50% of all heating turbines operating in Russia and the CIS. For more than 70 years of operation, the plant has supplied 861 steam turbines with a total capacity of 60 thousand MW to power plants in various countries.

The enterprise has developed a whole family of steam turbines for steam power plants of various types. In addition, UTW specialists are developing and preparing for the production of turbines for steam-gas plants - variants of steam-gas 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 proposed. For a double-circuit combined cycle plant with a capacity of 170-230 MW, it is proposed to use a cogeneration steam turbine T-53 / 67-8.0, 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 UTW CJSC, domestic machine-tool and mechanical engineering at the moment does not reach the world level. To modernize enterprises, high-tech equipment needs to be given the green light, so the company is currently changing its technology policy. In close cooperation with the specialists of ROTEC CJSC 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 the customer is offered modern service solutions, including those based on long-term post-warranty service of steam and gas turbines. In 2009-2011. the plant has invested more than 500 million rubles in technical re-equipment programs. to ensure the existing portfolio of orders and reach the design capacity of producing 1.8 GW of turbine equipment per year. In February 2012, within the framework of this program, UTW acquired 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 adjustment of new machines was carried out by Chiron specialists. Within the framework of the contract, the 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 UTW 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 OJSC Kuzbassenergo. The new T-60 / 65-130-2M turbine, station number 8, has been 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 produced 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 JSC UTZ - a continuation of the serial line of steam turbines T-55 and T-50, which have proven themselves well over many years of operation at CHPPs in Russia and the CIS. The new turbines use modern units and modified elements that increase the technical and economic performance of the turbine unit (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 power supply in the region. Commissioning of the unit is planned at the end of next year. The turbine is equipped with two PSG-2300 heating water heaters and a KG-6200 condenser group, as well as a TVF-125-2U3 turbine generator with hydrogen cooling produced by NPO ElSib.

Recently, a new single-cylinder steam turbine T-50 / 60-8.8, manufactured for the Petropavlovskaya CHPP-2 (SevKazEnergo JSC), was successfully tested at the assembly stand of UTZ. The new Ural-made turbine is to replace the previously operating two-cylinder Czech turbine P-33-90 / 1.3 manufactured by Skoda, and will be mounted on the same foundation. The project for the replacement of the turbine was prepared by the institute of JSC "KazNIPIEnergoprom", with which JSC "UTW" has been cooperating for a long time and fruitfully. Long-standing ties with the former Soviet republics are not weakening either: for example, at the moment, the issue of supplying several Ural turbines for the thermal power plants 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 large power for use in 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 Rybinsk (JSC Russian Renault). In the post-revolutionary years, the plant worked on the development and production of aircraft engines. In the early 90s. Rybinsk Motors was reorganized into JSC Rybinsk Motors. In 2001, after its merger with the Rybinsk Motor Design Bureau (OJSC A. Lyulka-Saturn), the company received its modern name and began to produce gas turbines for the energy and gas industries. In the product line, 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 in gas pumping units and thermal power plants (from 4 MW and above). For power plants of low power (from 2.5 MW and above), the DO49R unit is produced - a single-shaft gas turbine with an integrated coaxial gearbox. In addition to "onshore" installations, the company manufactures marine gas turbines M75RU, M70FRU, E70 / 8RD, used to drive electric generators and gas compressors in marine and coastal industrial facilities of small and medium power (from 4 MW and above).

In 2003, interdepartmental tests of the GTD-110 unit, the first Russian gas turbine with a capacity of over 100 MW, were carried out (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4

GTD-110 is a single-shaft gas turbine for use in power and combined cycle power plants of high power (from 110 to 495 MW and above), created under 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-110 are in operation at Gazpromenergoholding (GEH) and Inter RAO. However, according to the specialists of Inter RAO, only the newest unit, launched in early March, is operating normally. The rest are currently unstable and are serviced under the manufacturer's warranty.

According to Alexander Ivanov, Director for Gas Turbine and Power Plants at NPO Saturn, as in the case of any new high-tech product, this is a completely natural process when defects are identified 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 his own expense without stopping the turbine.

Recently, OJSC Engineering Center Gas Turbine Technologies (OJSC NPO Saturn jointly with OJSC INTER RAO UES) won the OJSC RUSNANO competition to create an engineering center that will deal with innovative products, in particular, the creation of GTD-110M (Fig. 5), an upgraded 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 up to the best world models in this power class; the engine will be improved and refined, it is planned to create a combustion chamber providing an admissible level of harmful NOx emissions of 50 mg / m3. In addition, it is planned to use nanostructured coating technologies in the production of the engine, which will increase the reliability of the hot part of the turbine, increase the resource of the most wearing parts and the entire engine as a whole. GTD-110M will become the basis for the creation of high-power Russian CCGT units. All complex work on the GTD-110M project is designed for 2-3 years.

JSC "Leningrad Metal Plant"

The Leningrad Metal Plant is a unique enterprise. The plant has been counting its history since 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 turbines in 1924, and gas turbines in 1956. To date, more than 2,700 steam turbines and over 780 hydraulic turbines have been manufactured at LMZ. Today it is one of the largest power machine-building enterprises in Russia, which is part of OJSC Power Machines, which designs, manufactures and maintains a wide range of steam and hydraulic turbines of various capacities. Among the recent developments of the plant is the gas turbine unit GTE-65 with a capacity of 65 MW. It is a single-shaft unit designed to drive a turbine generator and capable of carrying base, half-peak and peak loads both autonomously and as part of a steam-gas unit. The GTE-65 gas turbine unit can be used in various types of steam-gas units for the modernization of existing and construction of new condensing and heating power plants. 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. LMZ OJSC signed an agreement with Siemens for the right to manufacture and sell in the Russian Federation and Belarus a gas turbine unit GTE-160 with a capacity of 160 MW (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6

The prototype of the plant is a Siemens V94.2 gas turbine, the documentation of which has been changed taking into account the capabilities of LMZ and its partners. This very turbine, manufactured at JSC Leningradsky Metal Plant, was delivered to Permskaya TPP-9 under a contract between JSC KES and JSC Power Machines last summer.

Cooperation with German turbine builders continues. In December 2011, 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 research and development of new gas turbines, localization of production in Russia, assembly, sale, project management and service of high-power class E 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 Strategy for the Development of Power Machine Building of the Russian Federation for 2010-2020 and for the future until 2030. to organize in the near future at the Leningrad Metal Plant large-scale production of licensed high-power 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 bypass Western sanctions for the sake of the most important state task - the construction of Crimean power plants. The turbines necessary for the operation of the stations, produced by the German company Siemens, were delivered to the peninsula. However, how did it happen that our country was unable to develop such equipment itself?

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

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

Russian companies only mass-produce turbines for small 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 just the required capacity of 168 MW. Russia is forced to find ways to bypass Western sanctions in order to fulfill the program to ensure the energy security of the Crimean Peninsula.

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

After the collapse of the USSR in the 90s and early 2000s, the Russian power engineering industry found itself on the brink 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 our 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 something that is already modern and ready-made abroad.

“In the 2000s, we built gas turbine power plants with GE and Siemens turbines. Thus, they put our already poor energy sector on the needle of Western companies. Now huge amounts of money are being paid for the maintenance of foreign turbines. An hour of work for a Siemens service engineer costs the same as the monthly salary of a locksmith in this power plant. In the 2000s, it was not necessary to build gas turbine power plants, but to modernize our main generating capacities, ”says Maxim Muratshin, General Director of the Powerz engineering company.

“I am engaged in production, and I was always offended when the top management used to say that we would buy everything abroad, because ours did not know how to do anything. Now everyone is awake, but the time is lost. There is already 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-power turbine and sell it to 30 gas turbine power plants. This is what the Germans would have done. And the Russians just bought these 30 turbines from foreigners, ”the source adds.

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 demand from power plants, which urgently need to replace outdated equipment. However, they have no money for this.

“The power plants do not have enough money to carry out large-scale modernization in the context of a tight tariff policy regulated by the state. Power plants cannot sell electricity at a price that would allow them to cash in on quick upgrades. 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 high-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 to three years our factories can again produce 40-50 boilers a year. It's a matter of time and money. But here they drag it to the last, and then they want to do everything quickly in two days, ”Muratshin worries.

The demand for gas turbines is even more difficult because generating electricity from gas boilers is expensive. No one in the world builds its energy 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 quickly connect and provide energy to the grid, which is important during peak periods of consumption (morning and evening). Whereas, for example, steam or coal boilers require several hours to cook. “In addition, there is no coal in Crimea, but it has its own gas, plus they are pulling a gas pipeline from the Russian mainland,” Muratshin explains the logic according to which a gas-fueled power plant was chosen for Crimea.

But there is another reason why Russia bought specifically German, and not domestic, turbines for the 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 refined at the United Engine Corporation together with Inter RAO and Rusnano. This turbine was developed in the 90s and 2000s, it was even used at the Ivanovskaya TPP and Ryazanskaya TPP in the late 2000s. However, the product ended up with many "childhood illnesses". Actually, now NPO Saturn is 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 a crude domestic turbine for it. The UEC explained that they would not have time to finalize their turbine before the start of the construction of stations in 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 purely imported products. Alexey Kalachev from Finam Investment Company notes that turbines for Crimean CHPPs could be produced in Russia, at the St. Petersburg plant Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies.

“Of course, this is a subsidiary of Siemens, and certainly some part of the components is supplied for assembly from European factories. 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 overcome the technological gap most quickly and efficiently.

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

The real origin of the turbines supplied to Crimea turned out to be quite understandable. As stated by the Technopromexport company, 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 coming of the gas era. No one has any doubts about the high efficiency of combined cycle plants. Increasingly, there is talk of the need for distributed generation, and not based on diesel fuel, but on cleaner sources. It would seem that there are all conditions for the rapid development of the market for gas turbines for surface applications.

Turning back

Historically, the production of steam turbines in our country has developed more actively than gas turbines. At the leading enterprises producing turbines for power engineering - 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, the stake was placed on coal, oil and other heating sources.

Gas turbines were developed primarily in relation to aircraft construction. It is not surprising that competence in the development of industrial gas turbines (including power ones) sometimes goes 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, OJSC Saturn - Gas Turbines (Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Region, part of OJSC United Engine Building Corporation) is engaged in the production of ground power equipment based on NPO Saturn engines.

A similar story took place at JSC Perm Engine Company, which mastered the production of gas turbine power plants based on the developments of JSC 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 and buyers. Rather, its stabilization is observed.

Market of gas-pumping and power generating gas turbine equipment in the range of unit capacity 2.5- 25 MW for 2010-12 (source: Lifting Power magazine)

Cooperation is in trend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 setting up production of gas turbines in our country. So the large supply projects implemented by the company are supported by imports.

“Over the past few years, the growth in demand for gas turbines in Russia has been driven by the mechanisms of CDA [Power Supply Agreements - Approx. ed.], - explains Andrey Lavrinenko, vice president of Alstom Power in Russia, CIS countries and Georgia. - Now all the main equipment has been contracted under the CDA, the demand has correspondingly decreased, and all participants in the energy market live in an era of waiting for changes. The lack 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, with an increase in demand in 2013-2014. will be about 1% per year or even less. "

“The biggest challenge for turbine manufacturers is forecasting market demand in a volatile environment,” says Pierpaolo Mazza, General Manager of GE's Power Distribution Division in Russia and the CIS.

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

“The production of powerful gas turbine units (GTU) requires special equipment, large-diameter machines, 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 energy, perhaps then enterprises will start investing in the modernization of the base. "

Tests of the gas turbine GT 24 / GT 26 (photo by Alstom)

Mediums are among the leaders

However, the lack of predictable prospects should not be interpreted as a lack of demand. There is undoubtedly 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 with lower capacity, requiring less capital expenditures, but at the same time decisive for improving energy efficiency and payback.

“The demand is growing in the first place for small gas turbines, which are becoming more widespread in the continuously growing sector of distributed power generation,” notes Pierpaolo Mazza. "Versatile, economical and reliable installations such as gas turbines based on aircraft engines will have an advantage in this market."

Gas turbines with a capacity of 4, 8, 16, 25 MW are a segment in which mainly Russian manufacturers work, who have already felt the market trend. Thus, REP Holding notes that at the moment the greatest demand is for units with a capacity of 16-25 MW, 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 Soloviev also connects the growth of the sales market with the development of regional energy and the commissioning of generating facilities of medium capacity. For example, now, within the framework of the pilot project of the Energy Efficiency Improvement Program for the regions of the Russian Federation, Saturn - Gas Turbines is completing the construction and commissioning of the CCGT-CHPP-52 in the town 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 currently working on 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 seems to be less promising so far. “Suppose, during the day, an enterprise uses the energy of a gas turbine plant for its own needs, but where should it be directed at night? - D. Soloviev asks the question. - It turns out that you need to trade on the electricity market, but it is not so easy, you need agreements with the energy system. If an enterprise does not use its generating facility at full capacity, then its payback suffers. "

Small but useful

As you know, 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-power cogeneration plants are commonplace. The situation will change with us, the only question is when.

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

“With the rise in energy prices, enterprises that have their own gas boiler houses are increasingly asking themselves the question of improving energy efficiency,” notes Alexander Sidorov, Technical Director of Turboenergia and Service LLC (Perm). “For these purposes, when heat generation is a primary task and electricity generation is a factor in increasing energy efficiency, low-power gas turbine units are being used.”

Nevertheless, A. Sidorov admits that the main difficulty for companies supplying low-power turbines is the lack of solvency of potential customers. Still, despite the low cost of energy generated by the gas turbine, 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-fueled 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 power output per unit area. In addition, the bulk of the released thermal energy is not distributed, but concentrated in one place, which creates an opportunity for its further use.

At the service of the oil industry

One cannot but mention one more, traditional segment of the gas turbine market - generating facilities at oil and gas fields and main gas pipelines. The reasons for the popularity of gas turbines are obvious here - fuel, as they say, is “at hand”. Gas turbine power plants make it possible to efficiently 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 of JSC Saturn - Gas Turbines, in the pre-crisis 2006-2008. there was a surge in demand from oil workers. Moreover, turbines were introduced to process associated petroleum gas and generate electricity not only for the needs of the fields, but also for the population. The company received a large number of such orders from OJSC TNK-BP. Today the demand is at a stable level. Naturally, manufacturers are improving turbines for this market.

“In our opinion, the newly developed turbines with a capacity of 1.8 MW, operating on crude oil and complex fuels, should be in demand at the enterprises engaged in oil production in fields with a low (absent) GOR,” says Alexander Sidorov. “Another additional direction of development is the use of radial turbines as units operating on gas with a high (up to 5%) hydrogen sulfide content, which makes it possible to dispense with the design and construction of additional gas preparation units.”

It is worth noting that radial turbines are structurally different from the more common axial ones by the organization of movement of air and heat flows. Radial are designed primarily for power supply to small consumers. REP Holding specialists 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 are widely used in low-temperature recovery plants and in ceramic microturbines. For other areas, only axial turbines are still suitable (and are used).

GTES-12 Rybinsk (photo by OJSC "Saturn - Gas Turbines")

Get even better

It is obvious that modern trends in the improvement of gas turbines are not limited to innovations for the oil industry. Here are some more examples.

First of all, all manufacturers strive to improve efficiency. Russian companies note that when developing new products, it is important for them to overlap the products of foreign competitors precisely for this indicator, and not only (and not so much) in terms of capacity. However, if we are talking about a coefficient of 34%, then Western colleagues are already aiming at 38% efficiency. This level of efficiency was achieved by the Alstom GT13E2 turbine upgraded in 2012 in a simple cycle with improved performance over the entire load range.

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

Turbine designers also strive to make them unpretentious in the characteristics of the gas used in the installations and to ensure the possibility of operation on liquid fuel. In the West, they are also concerned that, regardless of the composition of the gas used, the turbine has good environmental characteristics.

GTES-12 Penyagino, Moscow (photo by OJSC "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 providing constant power output, but the introduction of renewable energy into the power system automatically requires flexibility from other generation facilities. This flexibility makes it possible to ensure a stable level of power in the network in case of insufficient renewable energy production, for example, on calm or cloudy days.

Accordingly, a turbine for a smart power system must easily adapt to changes in the grid and be designed for regular starts and stops without loss of resource, which was not possible with traditional gas turbines. Certain successes in this direction have already been achieved. For example, GE reports that the new FlexEfficiency gas turbine is capable of reducing power from 750 MW to 100 MW and then back to baseline in 13 minutes, and when used with solar power plants will have an efficiency of up to 71%.

Nevertheless, in the foreseeable future, the most common way of using gas turbines will still remain their usual combination with steam turbines as part of 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

First photo: 3D model of a GT13E2 gas turbine (Alstom)
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In August 2012, our country became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This circumstance will inevitably lead to increased competition in the domestic market for power engineering. Here, as elsewhere, the law applies: "change or die." Without revising technologies and without deep modernization, it will be almost impossible to fight the sharks of Western engineering. In this regard, the issues related to the development of modern equipment operating as part of combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) are becoming more and more urgent.

In the past two decades, combined-cycle technology has become the most popular in the world energy sector - it accounts for up to two-thirds of all generating capacities commissioned on the planet today. This is due to the fact that in combined-cycle plants the energy of the combusted fuel is used in a binary cycle - first in a gas turbine, and then in a steam turbine, and therefore a 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 gas turbine manufacturers from Russia are critically behind the world's leading manufacturers is high-capacity gas turbines - 200 MW and above. Moreover, foreign leaders not only mastered the production of gas turbines with a unit capacity of 340 MW, but also successfully tested and apply a single-shaft CCGT unit, 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 can significantly reduce the construction time and cost of the power unit.

In March 2011, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia adopted the “Strategy for the Development of Power Machine Building of the Russian Federation for 2010–2020 and for the Long Term until 2030”, according to which this direction in the domestic power engineering industry 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 revision at its own test benches, improved gas turbine units (GTU) with a capacity of 65-110 and 270-350 MW and combined cycle plants (CCGT) on natural gas with an increase their coefficient of performance (COP) up to 60%.

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

However, many generating companies that use domestic equipment when replacing it still prefer to contact firms with which they are accustomed to working for more than a decade. This is not just a tribute to tradition, but a justified calculation - many Russian companies have carried out a technological renovation of production and are fighting on an equal footing with the world's power engineering giants. Today we will tell you 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 Plant (St. Petersburg), Perm Engine Building Complex (Perm Territory).