Digitalization technology has been pivotal in providing efficiency, cost advantages and better planning in operating Turkey's first digital power plant, the Ic Anadolu Natural Gas Combined Cycle Power Plant, according to the general manager of GAMA Energy, the plant's operator, in a recent interview.
GAMA Energy's General Manager Tamer Calisir told Anadolu Agency that efficiencies at the plant have decreased natural gas consumption during its operations.
"Digitalization provides an average cost reduction of 10 percent during the maintenance period. In the period of maximum consumption, it saves up to 30 percent in certain areas, mainly fuel cost and quantity," Calisir said on location at the plant in Kırıkkale in Central Anatolia.
The plant's digitalization involves a software application that provides numerous operational benefits. These include improved reliability and availability via enhanced predictivity, accurate performance monitoring and forecasting capability, dispatch optimization via better visibility into plant capability, lower production costs and asset generation forecasting capability for improved asset dispatch.
The power plant has a capacity of 853 megawatts, and since its launch in 2016, has provided 2 percent of Turkey's power consumption and more than 50 percent of Ankara's power needs.
With the help of digitalization, which over the past few years has become widespread worlwide, the power plant produces cleaner and uninterrupted energy supply as compared to similar plants without this technology, Calisir said.
"We are planning to make investments to increase the efficiency of the power plant in the near future, and we are also planning to provide a complete integration to the plant by adding energy storage systems," he explained, adding the plant has a service contract with U.S.-based General Electric (GE).
Calisir detailed that last year alone, the plant worked for over 8 thousand hours, produced 5,170 gigawatts of energy, and had an annual output in excess of 1.6 billion Turkish liras.
During the plant's construction phase, the company invested approximately $850 million.
- Plant leads as trail blazer
Graham Traynor, senior vice president of the company said the plant was chosen by the Turkish Ministry of Environment as a model in terms of environmental awareness and has collaborated with the ministry on pilot schemes.
"One of the projects is for online gas monitoring in line with EU standards," Traynor explained.
He also declared the plant's exemplary characteristic is in its use of relatively small water volumes compared with most power plants in Turkey.
"We use around 40 tons of fresh water an hour," he said. Compared to other plants that use 100 times more water, this allows for significant savings.
The plant's safety record is also one to take pride in, he explained.
"During the construction and operational phases, safety is top priority for us. We have had no fatalities nor serious accidents. During the construction phase, around 3 million man hours were worked during which there was only minor incidents but no fatal accidents occured," Traynor noted.
