The photo is sourced from powermag.com
Combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units are the most popular type of the gas-fired power plants. They are equipped with steam-power and gas turbine engines, which provides for high efficiency factor (over 60% vs 28–42% of simple gas-turbine units). In total, thirteen steam-power units of total 12.4 GW capacity are to be launched in the USA in 2022–2023; Florida and Michigan will account for 5.8 GW. The total number of new gas-turbine plants in 2022–2023 will reach fourteen, and their cumulative capacity – 1.9 GW, half of which will be provided by Texas.
Despite the fact that gas-turbine plants are significantly behind the steam-power plants in terms of their specific capacitance (140 vs 900 MW), they are capable of quicker response to the surges in energy demand, especially in the regions with high percentage of renewable energy sources (RES). So it is for a good reason that Texas is the key venue for gas-turbine units, because in 2022 the share of wind generation in its power generation reached 25%.
The balancing role of gas-turbine units can be also seen in such metric as power generators’ utilisation rate: the total utilisation rate of gas-steam power plants in the USA in 2022 made 56.7%, and for gas-turbine units it was only 13.7%. This indirectly shows that gas-turbine units are used when there is a surge in demand, which cannot be covered by other sources.
Gas remains the key source of power generation in the USA. According to Ember analytical center, the share of gas-fired power plants in the total generation mix of the United States grew from 16% up to 39%, while as the share of coal-fired power plants decrease from 52% down to 19% over the same period. And this trend will continue during the following years. According to EIA, in 2024–2025 twenty new gas-fired power plants of total 7.7 GW capacity will be commissioned in the USA.
