On better utilization of gas turbines in Kuwait

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Electricity and Water installed 16 gas turbine (GT) units of 2000 MW total generating capacity at Azzour South power plant (PP) and Sabbyia PP. These units are operating as a simple GT cycle by gas or oil fuel. The GT unit power output in Azzour PP is 163 MW at 15 °C ambient temperature (ISO conditions), and 125 MW at 46 °C (design outside air conditions). This paper suggests four variants for better utilization of these GT units. The first variant is to utilize these GT during off-peak hours to operate seawater reverse-osmosis desalting system. This increases the badly needed installed desalting capacity, decreases the specific energy consumed for desalting, and solves the problem of low water-to-power production ratio. The second variant is to add heat recovery steam generator to produce steam. This steam is used to operate multi-stage flashing units for more desalted water with no additional fuel energy. In the third variant, a gas/steam combined cycle is proposed to increase significantly both the installed capacity and efficiency. The fourth variant deals with cooling intake air to the compressor to increase the unit capacity when needed in hot days.