NEWS RELEASE                                                                                         November 2017

Gas Turbine Operators will spend $2.9 billion for Valves Next Year

Operators of gas turbines will spend $2.9 billion in 2018 for valves. Fifty-five percent of the total will be for new plants while 25 percent will be replacements and 20 percent will be upgrades of existing plants.  Some of the upgrades will just be valves added for better control and remote monitoring.  Others will be added due to conversion of open cycle to combined cycle operation.

4000 MW of open cycle gas turbines will be converted to combined cycle operation on an average annual basis in the next three years.  Most of this will be in the Middle East and the U.S where most of the units are still not in combined cycle mode. The open cycle mode emits almost as much CO₂ as does a coal fired boiler.  Conversions are being made primarily to achieve extra electricity production but greenhouse gas reduction per unit of energy produced is also a consideration.

Gas Turbine Open Cycle Capacity Percent by Region

It is a challenge to operate an HRSG on a fast cycling basis.  More robust automation and control provides part of the fast start HRSG solution.  There have been significant attemperator problems caused by frequent cycling.  One of the problems is leaking valves.  The solution is new valve designs and remote monitoring of valve leakage. McIlvaine is analyzing valve designs for HRSGS and has solicited assistance from the HRSG Users Group which is holding their annual conference in Houston from February 12-14.  https://hrsgusers.org/conference

The acceleration of remote monitoring of valves and the evaluation of total cost of ownership is covered in N031 Industrial IOT and Remote O&M.

The specific valve forecast for each of 12 valve types for gas turbines is provided in each of 80 countries in N028 Industrial Valves: World Market.

The technical issues relative to HRSGs and other gas turbine processes are continually analyzed in 59D Gas Turbine and Reciprocating Engine Decisions.

Profiles of the 50 largest purchasers of gas turbine valves are included along with project tracking in 59EI Gas Turbine and Reciprocating Engine Supplier Program