At 19:22 on 12 September, the steam turbine of the CTGR Hami 100 MW CSP plant was brought to rated speed on the very first attempt. The milestone marks a decisive breakthrough in the plant’s integrated start-up sequence and lays a solid foundation for on-schedule commissioning.
To guarantee a smooth launch, the Northwest Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd. of China Power Engineering Consulting Group (CPECC Northwest)—executive vice-chairman unit of the CSTA—together with China Energy Engineering Group Central. China Electric Power Test and Research Institute Co., Ltd., formed an integrated team that worked in close coordination. POWERCHINA NINGXIA ENGINEERING CORPORATION LIMITED meticulously organised construction, while HARBIN TURBINE COMPANY LIMITED, HARBIN ELECTRIC MACHINERY COMPANY LIMITED, Xizi Clean Energy and other equipment suppliers provided round-the-clock support.
After hours of precise operation and rigorous monitoring, the rotor coasted through all critical-speed zones and stabilised at the rated 3 000 r/min. On-site inspections confirmed that every parameter met design requirements and the system ran smoothly. As the “heart” of a CSP plant, the turbine roll-up is the definitive test of the installation and commissioning quality of the storage/heat-exchange system, the steam-generation loop and the conventional-island power block. Concurrently, the ETS on-line test, OPC overspeed test, main steam-valve activity test, turbine overspeed-channel test, plus generator AC-impedance, short-circuit and no-load characteristic tests were all completed successfully.
The 100 MW linear-Fresnel facility is the first CSP plant in Xinjiang to use molten-salt linear-Fresnel technology. Once in service it will offset the intermittency of the adjacent PV park within the Sanxia Hami multi-energy demonstration base, transforming a site that once relied solely on variable renewable resources into a controllable, dispatchable hybrid complex. The result will be safe, efficient, carbon-free bulk power delivery under large-scale grid-connected conditions. CPECC Northwest also pioneered an integrated PV-plus-CSP control room that enables one-button start-up, utilises curtailed PV electricity to energise external molten-salt electric heaters, and incorporates advanced optimisation and simulation tools for the linear-Fresnel loop— innovations that will guide future CSP projects and further showcase the institute’s strength in solar-thermal power generation.