OREANDA-NEWS. November 6, 2012. A new Combined Cycle Unit (CCU) that has been officially opened at Elektrenai Power Plant, controlled by Lietuvos Energija, AB, is touted as efficient, flexible and environmentally friendly.

The new CCU of Lietuvos Energija, AB is based on advanced technologies. Fuel-saving combined cycle technology is widely used in Europe’s electric energy production sector and is much more efficient compared to common open cycle units, which use solid or liquid fuel. The CCU is equipped with a 9FB gas turbine designed by the world famous company General Electric. It is one of the most advanced gas turbines that are currently used in the world for the production of electricity.

The CCU has an efficiency of more than 58 per cent. Meanwhile, using the ordinary technology only 25-40 per cent of fuel used for generation is converted into electricity. The CCU is able to generate the same amount of electricity consuming 30 per cent less natural gas than the old units of Elektrenai Power Plant.

It is planned that the CCU will produce 1.374 TWh of electricity in 2013, which is 14% of the country’s demand. In summertime, when the thermal power stations of big cities do not generate electricity, the CCU will be operating at its highest capacity.

The CCU is an environmentally-friendly electricity generation facility. The EU’s strict emission standards helped to achieve additional benefit in increasing the efficiency of fuel consumption in the electricity production sector.

“Due to high thermal efficiency, these units do not use additional fuel and achieve higher than usual capacity, and automatically reduce the amount of emissions per one kilowatt hour of electricity. The new unit used by our company meets stringent emission requirements to be enforced in 2016,” said Dalius Misiunas, CEO of Lietuvos Energija, AB.

Another important characteristic of the CCU is its flexibility. It is more than 10 times more flexible than ordinary thermal power plants and is able to regulate the amount of generated electricity at a speed of 25 MW per minute. The CCU reaches its maximum capacity in 4-5 hours from its start.

The CCU’s construction cost amounted to LTL 1.3 billion. EUR 168.2 million was donated by the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant International Decommissioning Support Fund. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development lent EUR 71 million and the remainder was borrowed from commercial banks. Lietuvos Energija, AB provided financing for the project as well.