OREANDA-NEWS. Today is the end of the scientific-technical board dedicated to the questions of reliability, state of service and prospects of utilization of gas-turbine engines (GTE) in the power range of 2.5 to 10 MW which was held at the Rybinsk-based NPO Saturn and Saturn-Gas Turbines on 24-25 April 2013 under the auspices of the UEC with the participation of Perm motor plat and Aviadvigatel, Gazprom and gas-transportation companies.

For the first time over last several years, the scientific-technical board (STB) united in Rybinsk under the leadership of the United Engine Corporation the manufactures and operators of industrial gas-turbine engines, power plants and gas-pumping equipment. The STB was focused on treating the current issues as well as the questions of production and operation of industrial gas-turbine machinery.

During the scientific-technical board session, NPO Saturn presented its main fields of development and the production capabilities with regard to industrial gas turbines for mechanical driving and for generation of electric power along with some actions aimed at improving the reliability of the following driven engines: GTD-4RM, GTD-6.3RM, GTD-6.3/8RM, GTD-10RM and at upgrading the GTD D049R engine as well as the applications of the GTD-6.3/8RM and GTD-10RM in the electric power engineering.

Besides, NPO Saturn demonstrated to the attendees of the STB the new developments including the GTD-10RME project – a power plant derived from the GTD-10RM gas-pumping installation; the industrial E70 marine application engine having the power of 8 MW fitted with a dual-fuel combustion chamber which can be installed on the seashore objects including drilling platforms.

Ilya Federov, NPO Saturn CEO underscored, “The year 2012 was the year when the company was working on the post-development of the line of its industrial gas-turbine engines. We focused on improving the design of the combustion chambers for the family of the on-ground engines and saw some tangible results. In particular, we have run tests of the low-emission combustor designed by NPO Saturn. Due to the introduced improvements, we have been able to decrease the pollutant emissions practically by 30%. The concentration of effort of the entire NPO Saturn team allowed to cope with all the issues that we had. The main actions have already been implemented and today we are in a position to offer to our customer the reliable industrial gas-turbine engines”.

Within the frame of the scientific-technical board session, the delegations from Gazprom, MC UEC and Saturn-Gas Turbines visited the production facilities of NPO Saturn used for production and MRO of the gas-turbine engines in the power range of 2.5 – 10 MW. The delegates visited the assembly shop of the industrial gas-turbine engines, the test beds for conducting special tests on industrial gas-turbine engines and also saw the gas-turbine power plant GTES-12 combined with the test bed for testing the power-generating GTD-6/8 MW having highly appraised the engineering and technological level of manufacturing industrial gas-turbine engines inherent to NPO Saturn.

“The important thing is that NPO Saturn is constantly changing for the better, – emphasized MC UEC deputy general director – head of the division “Energy and industrial programs” Sergey Mikhailov, – once every six months or once a year the company industrializes something new, it buys state-of-the-art machine tools, machining centers, it demonstrates again and again its compliance with the requirements of the international quality system while winning new certificates. All that is vital in the eyes of the customer because the product manufactured by our companies is indeed of high quality and we are constantly working on improving the already demonstrated quality level”.

During the STB session some discussions were held on the long-term plans of cooperation between the UEC companies and the gas-transportation companies. Among others, on the initiative of the UEC with active support of NPO Saturn and some other companies in the “Energy and industrial programs’ division the prospects of cooperating with Gazprom until 2020 were highlighted and discussed.

According to Pavel Fetisov, NPO Saturn deputy CEO for industrial and marine GTE programs “Saturn holds some prospects in the frame of this cooperation, in particular with its GTD-4RM engine to be used for the underground gas storage – for the nearest 8 years, and with its power-generating GTD D049R engine – for the nearest 4-5 years”.

Sergey Mikhailov, head of the “Energy and industrial programs” division noted, “such program of cooperation would allow Saturn to increase the volume of serial production of its industrial GTE, discontinue one-engine production rate and start producing up to 20-30 engines a year which will drive down the GTE production costs and will naturally increase the company-generated revenue. What is so unique about Saturn-made GTE? Well, first of all, many developments are new, i.e. with regard to their performance, and their efficiency not only equals but in many cases even surpasses the Western analogs. As far as the price is concerned, it also, do doubt, gives our products a competitive edge. These engines having such power range are used in the underground gas-pumping storages, and to our sincere regret, there aren’t too many of those around. But we do hope that these particular engines would be actively utilized in electricity-generating power plants which will be used to sustain the functioning of the Gazprom production sites”.

Research and Production Association Saturn JSC is an engine-building company specialized in design, manufacture and after sales support of gas-turbine engines for military and civil aviation, the Navy boats and power-generation and gas-pumping installations. NPO Saturn JSC is a part of the United Engine Corporation Managing Company JSC.

United Engine Corporation Managing Company JSC is a subsidiary of the United Industrial Company OBORONPROM JSC. The Company integrates over 85% of Russia’s leading companies specialized in design and development, serial production and service support of gas-turbine machinery, as well as the key enterprises – the industry’s integral players. One of the UEC’s prioritized fields of activity is the implementation of comprehensive programs of development of the companies within the industry with introduction of the world-class new technology.

United Industrial Company OBORONPROM JSC is a diversified machine-building group of companies founded in 2002. It is a part of Russian Technologies State Corporation. Key businesses: helicopter production (Russian Helicopters JSC), engine production (UEC) and other assets.