Gas Turbine Efficiency - overcoming your power problems

LOADBANKSCool running for snowboundloadbanks in CanadaPeter Duncan, managing director of Leicester-based Cressall Resistors, tells WIP how hiscompany tackled the major task of installing a giant loadbank at a Rolls Royceinstallation in Montreal, Canada’s second largest city.Rolls Royce’s 86MW loadbank is thelargest ever produced by Cressalland is used in one of thedevelopment facilities for testing gasturbines.At 60-metres long the loadbank isaround five and half times the length of adouble-decker bus and is cooled entirelyby convection. Despite its gargantuanproportions it is almost completely silentin use - an important consideration in asuburban location which represents thesixth largest conurbation in Canada andthe U.S. The loadbank has been installedat Rolls-Royce Canada’s Test Cell No. 7,beside the Lachine Canal in Atwater; asuburb of Montreal.The loadbank is used for thedevelopment and final production tests ofRolls-Royces’ Trent Industrial gas turbinegenerator packages. Suitable for13.8kV/60 Hz and 11kV/50 Hz testing, itallows turbines for markets outside NorthAmerica to be developed and testedalongside products for use in the U.S.The new modular loadbank has 21separate enclosures, each rated 4.11MWat 13.8kV continuous power dissipation.The 21 modules are arranged in groups ofthree, providing seven independentlyswitchable sections and a total installedcapacity of 86MW.The loadbank is installed on a purposebuiltsteel platform, five metres high, toensure adequate flow of cooling air up toand through the gratings on the platformThe Cressall loadbank has beeninstalled at Rolls-Royce Canada’sTest Cell No. 7 in Montreal.and into the base of the loadbank. Thereis provision on the platform for the futureinstallation of three more modules toraise the total capacity to 98MW. Eachmodule is a double-decker construction5m long by 3m deep and 8m high,weighing 8.5 tonnes. The platform layoutis designed to ensure equal cooling forupper and lower modules while makingthe whole structure as compact aspossible.Internet linkwww.cressall.comWIPPROBLEMSOLVEDHelp! All mytransmissionpylons havecollapsed.When Hydro-Québec needed a resistorsolution for the de-icer that prevents icebuild up on its power lines, and freezingduring ice storms, Cressall had the answer.Our compact, type-tested designs forhigh voltage filter applications are alsoused by Siemens, Areva and the NationalGrid Company.CressallIf anyone can help, Cressall canCressall Resistors Ltd, Evington Valley Road, Leicester, LE5 5LZ, U.K. • Tel: (+44) (0) 116 2733633 • Email: info@ cressall.com • www.cressall.com24MARCH 2010 • WORLDWIDE I NDEPENDENT P OWER