General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) is a government-run utility that has 4 x GT13E1 gas turbines (GT11, 12, 13 and 14) at its dual-fuel, simple cycle power plant in the Khoms area of Libya. The plant was built in 1995 and the original control system was obsolete. With failures threatening to affect the plant’s availability and reliability, GECOL turned to GE to modernize its gas turbine control system and Static Excitation & Static Frequency Converter (SEE/SFC) with the latest Mark VIe controls and Semipol.
GECOL’s existing control system was obsolete and its cards were failing, which was negatively impacting the reliability and availability of the power plant. GE’s relationship with GECOL has long included plant-wide support and customized services, and as the OEM for the plant’s gas turbines and generators, GE was the right choice to provide the latest Mark VIe for gas turbine control and Semipol for SEE/SFC. GE has installed their new control systems on two units so far, and the remaining two are expected to be commissioned by Q4 2023.
GECOL already has two 9FA gas turbines from GE that are running with Mark VIe controls. The engineering work for the plant’s GT13E1 gas turbines started in 2017, but there were some initial delays due to political events and COVID-19. Once the project was under way, GE’s engineering team put the Mark VIe controls to the test to make sure they were going to run smoothly for GECOL, including extensive simulator tests in Baden Automation Laboratories. Throughout the project, there was very close communication and cooperation between the controls engineering and commissioning teams. The first unit (GT 14) was commissioned in Q2 of 2021. The second unit (GT12) was installed and commissioned in Q1 2022, and the remaining units (GT11 and GT13) are expected to be in operation by Q4 2023.
GT gas turbines
power plant output
The project was well-designed and validated with clear documentation and great support from the GE team during the entire execution—including on weekends. This was a pilot project in Libya, and based on its success, I believe it will create a lot of new Mark VIe upgrade opportunities in other Libyan plants.
Ahmed Muhammad Alhuweemdi
Plant Manager, Khoms
General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) turned to GE to update its antiquated plant control system to the latest Mark VIe plant control system, helping return the plant assets to their original availability and reliability.
