Two existing UK combined cycle gas-fired power stations are to be upgraded. The plants at Enfield (400MW) and Grain (1200MW) are owned by Uniper, the company formed to hold E.On’s traditional generating assets.

The upgrade will add around 4% to the plants’ generating capacity, improve plant flexibility, extend maintenance Intervals by up to 33% and reduce fuel consumption, said GE Power Systems, which is carrying out the upgrade. As well as upgrading the plants’ four gas turbines, new digital monitoring and software changes will allow future performance to be monitored and optimised across the entire plant.

“We are delighted to work with Uniper to demonstrate the added value of GE’s operations optimisation software to give plant operators greater real-time oversights into the condition of their generation equipment,” said Paul McElhinney, president & chief executive of GE’s Power Services. “Our new Fleet360 services platform of total plant solutions allows us to offer customers like Uniper the capabilities to help increase the efficiency, availability and operational flexibility of their combined-cycle plants.”