CLEAN, LEAN, POWER MACHINE
Budapest Power Plant (BERT), a member of the EDF group, is the largest cogeneration power plant company in Hungary. A recent development which aimed at increasing efficiency and protecting the environment enabled the Kelenföld power station to continue to supply the capital’s district heating efficiently in the long term.
B
ERT operates four plants in Budapest and its past connects closely to the history of the capital. The Újpest, Kelenföld and Kispest plants use combined cycle production technology to provide heating energy and electricity. The fourth plant is the Révész heating plant, which operates hot water boilers to provide a district heating supply. BERT currently provides 60 per cent of the district heating energy demand in Budapest, and supplies 3 per cent of national electricity consumption. The power station in Kelenföld is one of Hungary’s most distinguished establish-
100 Industry Europe
ments, where energy production began in the 1910s. The plant contains a number of listed buildings which are well maintained ensuring that a piece of industrial building inheritance is preserved for the nation. The antique exterior however hides a modern and environmentally friendly technology due to the many developments completed over several phases in the past years. Mr Zoltan Szabó, project manager at BERT, recalls: “The redevelopment of the Kelenföld power station was quite a bizarre thought at first: Let’s ruin the performance capability of the gas turbine that is actually the ‘soul’ of the power station. How is that?”
High efficiency, low emissions “In order to answer this question, we have to know a little bit more about the firing technology of the gas turbines. The burning of the firing material including natural gas or light oil happens in the gas turbine. In case of traditional firing equipment, the amount of nitrogen oxide that is released during the firing process is reduced by steam injections whilst keeping the firing temperature under control. Because we are talking about significant amount of firing material (41,000 Nm3/h), the amount of steam injected is also significant (40t/h). The injected steam in the gas turbine works to lower efficiency,
