GT26 gas turbine upgrade will improve efficiency to help support decarbonization at Grain CHP Power Station

The challenge

Uniper’s mission is to help secure the energy supply and accelerate the energy transition across Europe, including in the United Kingdom. To that end, it has instituted a grand multi-year-spanning strategy to modernize its numerous energy generating assets by the 2030s.

The solution

With guidance from GE Vernova, Uniper is adjusting Grain power station’s three GT26 turbines to help improve the plant’s performance, raise its power output, and extend its maintenance intervals. 

Since 2021, GE Vernova has collaborated closely with Uniper, supporting its decarbonization efforts across its UK fleet. For the Grain natural gas power station in Kent—which only began operating in 2011—the process began with a comprehensive readiness assessment which, among other things, determined if the plant could be reconfigured to use different fuel blends (including hydrogen) to help reduce its carbon output.

Four years later, the next step in the process came in the form of GE Vernova’s GT26 High Efficiency (HE) turbine upgrade for all three of Grain’s GT26 gas turbines. As with Uniper’s previously successful upgrade to its much older Enfield facility, the Grain GT26 HE upgrade incorporates numerous innovations from GE Vernova’s F- and H-class turbines to help significantly increase Grain’s power output and efficiency.

According to Joseph Anis, President and CEO of GE Vernova’s Gas Power business in Europe, Middle East, and Asia, “This upgrade is expected to revitalize Uniper’s Grain power plant and to improve its competitive position in the Great Britain generation landscape, supporting its long-term profitability and viability.”