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Press Release

GE’s Industry-Leading Portfolio of Synchronous Condensers Celebrates 100th Anniversary

December 11, 2019

Synchronous condensers, with their ability to provide grid stabilizing inertia, are making a comeback

 

Paris, FRANCE — December 11, 2019 —This year, GE (NYSE: GE) is celebrating its 100-year anniversary of supplying synchronous condenser solutions to utility customers and transmission system operators.  As many transmission networks around the world are struggling with weak grid conditions as a result of retiring legacy thermal generation units and the intermittency of wind and solar power, this technology—once considered nearly obsolete—has reinvented itself and now provides critical support to a transforming grid. 

Installed at strategic intervals along a transmission system, synchronous condensers are electrical rotating equipment that produce or absorb reactive power to keep the current flowing consistently to the grid – helping to ensure reliable power is available for those who need it, when they need it. The company’s latest synchronous condenser offerings have undergone many developments since 1919, when GE shipped the world’s first high voltage synchronous condenser to Ontario Hydro in Canada.

The original 10 Mvar model has evolved over the past century to meet evolving grid demands. GE now offers the broadest synchronous condenser portfolio in the industry, with units ranging from 20 Mvar all the way up to more than 300 Mvar in a single piece of equipment. As a utility industry leader, GE has supplied more than 200 synchronous condensers to utilities around the globe. Significant technology milestones include:

  • 1919: First GE air-cooled synchronous condenser rated +10 MVARs
  • 1928: First GE hydrogen-cooled synchronous condenser rated +12.5 MVARs
  • 2008: First “modern era” synchronous condenser installed for the sole purpose of “grid reliability”
  • 2011: First synchronous condenser conversion from a 473 MVA generator to a +360/-210 Mvar synchronous condenser, allowing for seasonal conversion between generator and synchronous condenser
  • 2014: First GE air-cooled synchronous condenser rated +250 MVARs
  • 2017: World’s largest GE air-cooled synchronous condenser rated +330 MVARs
  • 2018: First 625 MVA liquid-cooled turbogenerator converted to synchronous condenser in Europe
  • 2018: High inertia synchronous condensers rated 4 x +250 MVARs with world’s largest flywheels
  • 2019:  Installation of the world’s most efficient air-cooled +100 Mvar synchronous condenser

Synchronous condenser technology has been around almost as long as the electric grid itself to support transmission system reliability. As the grid became more mature and reliable over the decades, synchronous condenser eventually became regarded as obsolete, with many utilities discontinuing use of the technology. Today, however, as the grid has experienced increasing instability, the technology is undergoing a major comeback with all major synchronous condenser manufacturers reporting higher sales.

“The biggest factor in this renaissance is the changing generation mix of less traditional thermal energy and more wind and solar energy,” said Fabrice Jullien, Global Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems (FACTS) business leader for Grid Integration Solutions, GE Renewable Energy’s Grid Solutions business. “Because the best sites for renewable power generation often are not adjacent to where the power is needed, an effective and affordable transmission infrastructure is paramount.” 

FACTS devices such as SVCs and STATCOMs are good at supplying reactive power quickly. They are less helpful at handling low system inertia, a measure of the stored energy within the mechanical rotating machine as well as low short-circuit strength in the power grid. Synchronous condensers can help meet these reactive power needs and boost system inertia and short-circuit strength.

Advanced technological improvements are also driving the acceptance of synchronous condensers. While older analog control systems and rheostats were unable to provide adequate response to dynamic events, the latest machines come with digital field exciter control systems and protective relays. The speed and precision of modern exciters allow the performance of new synchronous condensers to rival their SVC counterparts. Moreover, machine manufacturing and construction have advanced over the years. Slow speed 10- or 12-pole condensers are a thing of the past, and today’s better-insulated, brushless machines offer significantly higher reliability and availability with reduced maintenance costs.

“As the demands of the grid have changed over the past 100 years, GE’s synchronous condenser technology has changed with it. Today our synchronous condensers are enabling a clean energy future by supporting the integration of more renewable energy into the mix in a reliable way,” said Kevin Cogo, Rotating Equipment leader for GE Steam Power. “Our 100 years of experience, and the learnings that have been developed over that time, have GE well positioned to support our utility customers and transmission system operators as they navigate a dynamic energy landscape.”

-end-

Notes to Editors

About GE’s Grid Solutions

GE’s Grid Solutions, a GE Renewable Energy business, serves customers globally with over 17,000 employees in approximately 80 countries. Grid Solutions helps enable utilities and industry to effectively manage electricity from the point of generation to the point of consumption, helping to maximize the reliability, efficiency and resilience of the grid. For more about GE Renewable Energy’s Grid Solutions business, visit www.gegridsolutions.com.

About GE Steam Power

GE Steam Power is helping customers achieve their cleaner power generation objectives with a broad portfolio of technologies that can be applied to new-built plants and the installed base across a range of fuel sources including nuclear, coal, oil, biomass, solar and municipal waste. As today’s #1 steam power franchise with more than 30% of the world’s steam turbine installed capacity, 50% of the world's steam turbines operating in nuclear power plants and 30% of the world’s boilers, GE Steam Power technology is delivering solutions that optimize the reliability, affordability, flexibility and environmental impact of steam power plants all over the world.
 

For media inquiries, please contact:

Jessica Giansanti
External Communications Manager
GE Steam Power
+1 203 814 7604
[email protected]
Europe/Zurich
Allison J. Cohen
External Communications Leader
GE Renewable Energy, Grid Solutions
+972 54 729 9742
[email protected]

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