Sound experience with the 300 MVA air-cooled generator fleet

Today´s markets ask for cost-efficient and reliable turbogenerators with minimum maintenance and operational requirements. As a manufacturer´s answer the air-cooling of turbogenerators has been brought up stepwise to today´s 300MVA unit rating. By use of the most modern design tools, and building on a steady growing experience, we have achieved simple and robust, but efficient designs. We have now have gained over half a million EOH with the 300 MVA air-cooled fleet. The experience is mostly coming from units in gas turbine plants. The paper reviews the experience gained on the 300 MVA fleet, illustrated by the design modifications that have been realized. These achievements allow us today to base on a mature and sound air-cooled technology. Combined with the tested first 500 MVA unit, this enables us to fix boundaries for uprating units and to reliably develop new air-cooled series in the range of 300 to 500 MVA.