Twenty-Five Years of Operating Experience With the Coal-Fired, Closed-Cycle Gas Turbine Cogeneration Plant at Coburg

Abstract

The only commercially running closed-cycle gas turbine in the world delivering electricity as well as heat to a public utility and a heating network, is the heat and power station in Coburg, West Germany. The plant is fired exclusively with pulverized coal and uses air as the working medium. It has a maximum continuous electric power output of 6.6 MW into the grid and up to 16 MW of direct heating capacity into the town’s heating network. The plant has accumulated 150,000 operating hours to date (approximately 7000 hrs per year); it is scheduled to remain in service during the following years due to its excellent performance. Since relatively little has been published about the plant in the technical literature, a report about its design and operating experience is presented here.