Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power.

Received July 21, 2022;

Accepted manuscript posted September 03, 2022. doi:10.1115/1.4055495
Copyright (c) 2022 by ASME

GAS TURBINE COMBINED CYCLE RANGE ENHANCER - PART 2: PERFORMANCE

DEMONSTRATION

AUTHORS

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Tommaso Reboli - Università degli Studi di Genova, TPG, Genova, Italy – tommaso.reboli@edu.unige.it
Marco Ferrando - Università degli Studi di Genova TPG, Genova, Italy – marco.ferrando@edu.unige.it
Lorenzo Gini - Università degli Studi di Genova, TPG, Genova, Italy – lorenzo.gini@edu.unige.it
Luca Mantelli - Università degli Studi di Genova, TPG, Genova, Italy – luca.mantelli@edu.unige.it

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Alessandro Sorce - Università degli Studi di Genova, TPG, Genova, Italy – alessandro.sorce@unige.it

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Alberto Traverso - Università degli Studi di Genova, TPG, Genova, Italy – alberto.traverso@unige.it

ABSTRACT MEL Minimum Environmental Load

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In the current energy scenario, gas turbine combined cycles OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer
(GTCCs) are considered key drivers for the transition towards PID Proportional Integral Derivative control

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fossil-free energy production. However, to meet this goal, they PLC Programmable Logic Control
must be able to cope with rapid changes of power request, and PLCS Physic Level Control System
to extend their operating range beyond the limits imposed by the SF Scale Factor

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environmental conditions in which they operate. SP Set Point
The European H2020 project PUMPHEAT [1] aims at SOC State Of Charge
achieving this goal thanks to the integration of the GTCC with a TES Thermal Energy Storage
heat pump (HP) and a thermal energy storage (TES). To study

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this setup, a dedicated cyber-physical facility was built at the Symbols
University of Genova laboratories, Italy. α specific air consumption
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The plant includes physical hardware, such as a 100kWel ṁ mass flow
micro gas turbine, (mGT), a 10 kWel HP and a 180 kWh change n shaft speed [RPM]
phase material-based TES. These real devices are up-scaled P Power
rip

thanks to performance maps and real-time dynamic models to SF Scale Factor

emulate a full-scale heavy duty 400 MW GTCC with a cyber-
physical approach. The control system determines the optimal Subscripts
sc

configuration of the whole plant and the operative point of the C compressor
real devices to minimize the mismatch with a real electric power el electric
demand curve. in inlet
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Different operative configurations are tested: one for max maximum

reducing the power production of the plant below the minimum min minimum
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environmental load (MEL) and two for augmenting the plant out outlet
maximum power at certain ambient conditions. th thermal
From the analysis of these tests it is possible to verify the
effectiveness of the proposed concept and to characterize the 1. INTRODUCTION
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transient behavior of the real components. Increasing the flexibility and operative range of gas turbine
combined cycles (GTCCs) is crucial to make this technology
NOMENCLATURE more competitive in the current energy market, which is
pt

Acronyms characterized by a high number of non-dispatchable renewable

ARL Auxiliary Resistive Load energy sources. It will also reduce the environmental impact of
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COND Condenser GTCCs and will allow them to have a key role in the transition
COP Coefficient of Performance towards fossil-free energy generation.
EVA Evaporator Different methods to increase maximum production were
Ac

GT Gas Turbine introduced by previous studies. They can be classified as inlet air
GTCC Gas Turbine Combined Cycle cooling methods, combustion improvement methods or
HP Heat Pump combustion chamber injection systems (e.g. steam or humid air
HTF Heat Transfer Fluid injection [2]). More details regarding these solutions can be
IGV Inlet Guide Vanes found in the first part of this study [3].
INT Intake Heat Exchanger This work analyzes a range enhancing solution designed for
mGT micro Gas Turbine a GTCC following only the electrical market requests. This
MPC Model Predictive Control solution is called “Power Oriented” and its aim is to enhance the

GTP-22-1419 Reboli 1
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. Received July 21, 2022;
Accepted manuscript posted September 03, 2022. doi:10.1115/1.4055495
Copyright (c) 2022 by ASME

operative range of the GTCC through inlet conditioning via a and real-time models. All these activities are described in the first
heat-pump (HP) and a cold thermal energy storage (TES) [4]. part of this study [3]. The second part of the study introduces the
The HP can be used for both increasing and decreasing the control strategies implemented on the main physical equipment
compressor inlet air, while the TES can only be used for cooling. of the plant, the scale-up approach adopted, and the experimental

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Relying on a TES is an effective solution to decouple the results of the cyber-physical system.
utilization on the refrigeration system from the consumption of
electric power during peak periods, i.e. when the price is higher.
An advanced control system was developed to regulate the
integrated conditioning system and fully exploit the power plant

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capacity [5]. The control system determines the activation of HP
and TES to optimize the economic profitability of the plant. If

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the power output of the GTCC must be increased, inlet cooling
with the TES is always the best solution, requiring no

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consumption of electric power. Therefore, the activation of the
HP for inlet cooling is evaluated only when the TES is empty.
The control system considers both effects of inlet heating to

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determine the activation of this configuration. In fact, the HP can
be used at the same time to reduce the minimum environmental
load (MEL) of the plant and to charge the TES.

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Based on a previous study by Sorce et al. [6], the integrated
inlet conditioning system is expected to increase the operation
flexibility of GTCC in terms of:
FIGURE 1 - MAIN CONTENTS OF THE 1ST AND 2ND PARTS OF THIS

1) power augmentation (+14% during TES discharging);
2) minimum environmental load reduction (-16%);
3) off-design efficiency enhancement (ca. +1%).
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To assess the performance of the GTCC range enhancer on
a real system, and to test the control system in a
hardware-in-the-loop setup, a cyber-physical test-rig facility was
rip
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STUDY.
These activities are presented in this article. A test of about
8 hours is run on the cyber-physical system, activating all the
possible configurations of the plant. Each configuration is
analyzed separately, in order to highlight the performance of the

built in the laboratory of the Thermochemical Power Group different components (mGT, HP, TES), critical issues and
(TPG) of the University of Genoa. This facility is composed by possible improvements. Therefore, the results shown in this
two main parts: real hardware and real-time simulation software. article can be considered as a validation of the overall GTCC
sc

These two parts constitute a cyber-physical emulator of a GTCC, range enhancer concept and its four-level control system.
coupled with a heavy duty HP and an industrial cold TES.
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Cyber-physical systems are widely used in academia to 2. TEST-RIG AND EXPERIMENTAL CAMPAIGN
study complex, expensive and large energy systems in a DESIGN
laboratory environment [7]–[9]. In fact, beside the savings in
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equipment costs, the installation of a cyber-physical system
speeds up the development and deployment of innovative power
plants, encouraging private and public investment, and
substantially reducing the risk of failure [10].
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2.1. Cyber-Physical system description
The PUMP-HEAT project aims at studying and developing
innovative solutions to increase the flexibility of GTCCs and
extend their operative range. Within this framework, the TPG of

The real hardware, the simulation software and the control the University of Genoa, installed an innovative combined cycle
system of the Power Oriented cyberphysical system are emulator plant to study these solutions. This facility was
described in details in the first part of this study [3]. This article designed to study the impact of compressor inlet conditioning,
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focuses on the experimental campaign carried out on the test-rig considering the integration of the GTCC with a HP, which can
facility. The system is operated in various operating conditions, be used for heating or cooling, and with a cold TES [1].
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making it possible to analyze the performance of the GTCC The test rig facility, shown in Figure 2, represents the
range enahancer and its control system. The article also provides physical hardware of a cyber-physical full-scale plant, as
described in the first part of this study [3]. The top part of Figure
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additional information regarding the scale-up approach adopted

to integrate the system and the low-level control strategies
regulating the real devices.
1.1. Scope of work
The research activities on the GTCC range enhancer were
organized in two main parts, as shown in Figure 1. The first part
includes definition of different operating conditions, installation
of the experimental setup, and development of control system
3 shows the real-time software simulating the GTCC, also
highlighting the data connection points with the laboratory
facility.
The lower part of Figure 3 shows the main real devices of
the emulator plant:
- Turbec T100 micro gas turbine (mGT), equipped with inlet
conditioning heat exchanger (INT)
- 10 kWel HP using butane as working fluid

GTP-22-1419 Reboli 2
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. Received July 21, 2022;
Accepted manuscript posted September 03, 2022. doi:10.1115/1.4055495
Copyright (c) 2022 by ASME

- 180 kWh cold TES. The GTCC plant can operate in four different
A dedicated hydraulic circuit connects the plant configurations. To simplify the definition of the plant operation,
components. This circuit is equipped with many three-way each configuration is identified by a FLAG parameter, which can
valves, which can be set-up in different configurations to test the have a value between 1 and 4:

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system while emulating various operating conditions.
• Normal operation – FLAG 1 - In this configuration, the HP
is turned off and the TES does not exchange any heat flux with
the other components. It is the standard operating condition of
the plant, and it is set when the GTCC can easily follow the
electric power demand.

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• Continuous Cooling – FLAG 2 - In this configuration, the HP

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is used to cool down the compressor inlet air, while the TES
does not exchange any heat flux with the other components.

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The reduction of air temperature increases the GTCC power
output, increasing its maximum achievable power and making
it easier to follow fast load increases.

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• TES Discharge – FLAG 3 - In this configuration, the HP is
turned off and the TES is used to cool down the compressor

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inlet air. Similarly to Continuous Cooling, the reduction of air
temperature increases the GTCC power output, increasing its
maximum achievable power and making it easier to follow fast
load increases.

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FIGURE 2 – THE GTCC RANGE ENHANCER TEST-RIG INSTALLED IN
THE TPG LABORATORY. • TES Charge – FLAG 4 - In this configuration, the HP is used
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to warm up the compressor inlet air, while charging the cold
TES. The increase of air temperature decreases the GTCC
power output, reducing its minimum achievable power and
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enhancing its power ramping capabilities.

The GTCC is regulated by a 4-levels control architecture,
designed to condition the compressor inlet air temperature and
sc

generate the desired electrical power. The first 3 levels of the

control system were implemented on Matlab-Simulink and
integrated with a real-time dynamic model of the GTCC, while
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to fourth level, named physical level control system (PLCS), was

developed in NI Labview [3].
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2.2. Operative strategies

2.2.1. mGT operating range
When experimental test-rig and dynamic model are linked
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in cyber-physical configuration, the T100 mGT is scaled up to

emulate the heavy-duty GT of the Iren Energia GTCC 2GT,
Moncalieri, Italy. Reboli et al. [11] have already presented
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relationships and similarities between the off-design

performance of GT and mGT. In normal operating conditions,
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both mGT and GT control fuel consumption and air mass flow
to regulate the generated power. The mGT control system
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intervenes on the rotational speed (n) to modify air mass flow

FIGURE 3 – TEST-RIG LAYOUT AND REAL-TIME MODEL.
and electric power, while the heavy-duty GT, running at fixed
speed, uses an inlet guide vane (IGV). At n/nmax equal to 100%
and 78%, the mGT reaches respectively the maximum (100%)
and minimum (38%) dimensionless load. Eqs. (1) and (2),
obtained with the mGT exhaust temperature (TT,out) set equal to
645°C, show how the actual power values are influenced by the
compressor inlet temperature TC,in (Figure 4).

GTP-22-1419 Reboli 3
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. Received July 21, 2022;
Accepted manuscript posted September 03, 2022. doi:10.1115/1.4055495
Copyright (c) 2022 by ASME
n/nmax = 100%
n/nmax = 78%
FIGURE 4 – ELECTRICAL POWER OUTPUT OF THE MGT T100 AT
MINIMUM (N/NMAX = 78%) AND MAXIMUM (N/NMAX = 100%) LOAD, AS
A FUNCTION OF TC,IN.
𝑃𝑒𝑙,𝑚𝐺𝑇,𝑚𝑎𝑥 = −1.2 · 𝑇𝐶,𝑖𝑛 + 110 (1)
𝑃𝑒𝑙,𝑚𝐺𝑇,𝑚𝑖𝑛 = −0.8 · 𝑇𝐶,𝑖𝑛 + 53.7 (2)
For each compressor inlet temperature, the Pel,MGT has been
scaled up, through dimensionless power load, to the power of a
heavy duty GT, which off-design performance have been
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confirmed by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) [11]
[6]. This operation is integrated in the cyber-physical setup using
Matlab-Simulink linear lookup tables.
sc
2.2.2. HP control strategy
As already introduced in [3], the HP is equipped with a
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programmable logic controller (PLC) which has three different
control logics:
- expansion valve: regulated to keep a constant temperature at
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the evaporator
- three-way valve: controlled to maintain the superheat of butane
leaving the evaporator to a proper level, before entering the
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compressor
- compressor speed: controlled to match the evaporator outlet
temperature setpoint on the heat transfer fluid (HTF) side
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(TEVA,out).
The compressor speed is responsible for the electric power
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absorbed by the HP and, consequently, for the cold thermal
power generated, but it is not possible to directly control the HP
electric power. However, the electric power can be indirectly
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controlled, varying the evaporator thermal load and letting the
HP regulate the compressor speed to maintain the HTF leaving
the evaporator at a proper temperature.
Figure 5 shows how PLCS and HP PLC are integrated with
the test-rig.
GTP-22-1419
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FIGURE 5 – CONTROL LOGICS OF THE HEAT PUMP.
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Depending on the configuration of the plant, there are different
ways to vary the evaporator thermal load (and TEVA,out):
• TES Charge (FLAG 4): in this case the PLCS changes the
HTF mass flow by varying the pump P3 speed through a
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dedicated PID (in this configuration the pump P3 is the
actuator).
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• Continuous Cooling (FLAG 2): in this case the HTF mass
flow that passes through the HP EVA is constant. The PLCS
acts on the regulating valve RV_2, which is the actuator for
this configuration. In this way, only a fraction of the mass
flow goes through the INT, which is the thermal load of the
circuit. The remaining mass flow is bypassed. In this case the
physical parameter that is controlled is the HP EVA inlet
temperature, which directly influences the thermal load of the
HP and consequently the absorbed electric power.
2.2.3. TES control strategy
The TES is one of the key components of the system. A
stable control of the thermal power delivered to the INT is
fundamental to follow the thermal power setpoint (SP)
determined by the control system in TES Discharge
configuration (FLAG 3). In fact, in FLAG 3 the HP is turned off,
and the TES is directly connected to the INT through a dedicated
circuit where the HTF is moved by the pump P3 (see Figure 3).
As already anticipated in the first part of this study [3], the
power provided by the TES is regulated by varying the HTF
mass flow, controlling the speed of the pump P3. Due to its high
thermal capacitance, the TES reacts to flow variations with a
behavior that can be well approximated by a second-order
system. Consequently, it was necessary to dedicate a specific
activity to properly tune the related PID. In Figure 6 it is possible
to observe the response of the system to step variations of the
control variable u, which represents the pump P3 speed.
Reboli 4
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. Received July 21, 2022;
Accepted manuscript posted September 03, 2022. doi:10.1115/1.4055495
Copyright (c) 2022 by ASME

of the GT, due to the lack of blade cooling, resulting in a different

specific air consumption. The SFth, which is computed according
to Eq. (3), is implemented into the cyber-physical system.

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𝑃𝑒𝑙,𝐺𝑇 𝛼𝐺𝑇 𝑚̇𝑎𝑖𝑟,𝑚𝐺𝑇,𝐶 𝑀𝑊𝑡ℎ
𝑆𝐹𝑡ℎ = ∙ ∙ = 0.555 (3)
𝑃𝑒𝑙,𝑚𝐺𝑇 𝛼𝑚𝐺𝑇 𝑚̇𝑎𝑖𝑟,𝑚𝐺𝑇,𝑡𝑜𝑡 𝑘𝑊𝑡ℎ
Where:
𝑃𝑒𝑙,𝐺𝑇 = 268 𝑀𝑊 GT nominal electric power

d
𝑃𝑒𝑙,𝑚𝐺𝑇 = 100 𝑘𝑊 mGT nominal electric power

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FIGURE 6 – RESPONSE OF THE PTES TO MULTIPLE STEP VARIATIONS 𝑚̇𝑎𝑖𝑟,𝐺𝑇 𝑘𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑟
OF PUMP P3 SPEED. 𝛼𝐺𝑇 = = 2.5 GT specific air consumption
𝑃𝑒𝑙,𝐺𝑇 𝑠 ∙ 𝑀𝑊

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The absolute value of PTES grows with the increase of mass 𝑚̇𝑎𝑖𝑟,𝑚𝐺𝑇 𝑘𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑟
flow. However, since the cold energy is leaving the storage in 𝛼𝑚𝐺𝑇 = =8 mGT specific air consumption

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this configuration, the values of PTES are negative. It can be noted 𝑃𝑒𝑙,𝑚𝐺𝑇 𝑠 ∙ 𝑘𝑊
that, before reaching a steady condition, the thermal power trend 𝑘𝑔
shows a wide overshoot, making the tuning of the PID controller 𝑚̇𝑎𝑖𝑟,𝑚𝐺𝑇,𝐶 = 0.8 Air mass flow elaborated by

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more difficult. The overshoot occurs because the flow rate 𝑠 the mGT compressor
variation is almost instantaneous, while temperature variations 𝑘𝑔 Total air mass flow elaborated
require a longer time. The power varies greatly at first, due to the 𝑚̇𝑎𝑖𝑟,𝑚𝐺𝑇,𝑡𝑜𝑡 = 1.2
𝑠 by the mGT
sudden change in flow rate, and then stabilizes as soon as the

thermal transient is complete.
The problem of PID calibration was addressed modelling
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the TES as a second order transfer function in Matlab-Simulink,
and designing the PID according to the pole placement method
[12]. After implementing the PID on the real plant, its parameters
rip
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To evaluate the accuracy of the scale-up, a balance-of-plant
was performed, considering TES Charge, TES Discharge and
Continuous Cooling. The electrical power of the HP and the
thermal power of the TES were set to be consistent with those
obtainable in the laboratory, assuming to perform a complete

were adjusted to optimize the performance of the controller. charge and discharge of the TES.
Figure 7 shows the good tracking capabilities of the PID on It must be underlined that the thermal losses for the full-
the TES, while changing the thermal power setpoint with scale plant were assumed to be equal to 10%, both for the cold
sc

multiple step variations. and the hot circuit. This value exceeds the expected one for
industrial applications, but it was set for consistency with the
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ones observed on the test-rig, as explained in [3].

Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3 show the results of this
assessment, where the blue cells indicate the assumption, while
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the main outcomes of the analysis are highlighted in red.

TABLE 1 – TES CHARGE SCALE-UP ANALYSIS.

avg Pel HP 8,5 kW

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COP HP 1,7 -
Pth cold HP (to TES) 14,0 kW
Laboratory
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Pth TES 11,5 kW

TES Charging time 3 h
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FIGURE 7 – RESPONSE OF THE CONTROLLED TES TO MULTIPLE STEP TES final SOC 19,2 %
CHANGES OF THERMAL POWER SETPOINT.
Pel HP 3,0 MW
COP HP 2,5 -
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2.3. Scale-up analysis Cyber-

As already described in the first part of this study [3], all Pth cold HP (to TES) 7,4 MW
physical
the physical elements are scaled up to a real GTCC plant. The Pth TES 6,7 MW
GTCC
10kWel HP is scaled up to a 3.5 MWel HP, in accordance with Charging time TES 3 h
the analysis by Mantilla et al. [13]. All the heat flows provided TES final SOC 100,1 %
to the INT are scaled up through a thermal scale factor (SFth),
which considers the characteristics of the mGT and GT in terms
of electric power and specific air consumption α. In fact, the
mGT needs to keep the TIT at a lower temperature than the one

GTP-22-1419 Reboli 5
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. Received July 21, 2022;
Accepted manuscript posted September 03, 2022. doi:10.1115/1.4055495
Copyright (c) 2022 by ASME

TABLE 2 – TES DISCHARGE SCALE-UP ANALYSIS. of Continuous Cooling (FLAG 2). This scenario made it
avg Pth TES (to INT) 11,5 kW possible to experiment all the possible operative conditions and
to test all the control system functions.
Pth INT 11,0 kW
Laboratory The test was designed to verify that all the possible
Discharge time TES 3 h

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configurations of the plant are activated in the proper way,
final SOC TES 0 %
validating its operating capabilities, and improving its load
Pth TES (to INT) 6,7 MW following features during intra-day adjustments, while
Cyber-
Pth INT 6,1 MW optimizing the HP operation.
physical
Discharge time TES 3 h
GTCC 3. HARDWARE IN THE LOOP RESULTS

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TES final SOC 0,1 %
To demonstrate the potential of the GTCC range extender,

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an 8 hour long test was designed and carried out on the test-rig.
TABLE 3 – CONTINUOUS COOLING SCALE-UP ANALYSIS. All the measurements and uncertainties were evaluated relying
avg Pel HP 8,5 kW on the experimental setup described in the first part of this study

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COP HP 1,7 - [3]. In this section the whole test scenario is described, and the
Laboratory effect of each different configuration is analyzed in details.
Pth cold HP (to INT) 14,0 kW
Figure 8 shows the full test, in terms of electric power

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Pth cold INT 12,2 kW
Pel HP 3,0 MW demand, net electric power produced, scheduled and operative
COP HP 2,5 - configuration (FLAGS).
Cyber-

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The test starts with minimum power demand and the plant
physical Pth cold HP (to INT) 7,4 MW
running under FLAG 1, where the GT is operated with no inlet
GTCC Pth INT 6,8 MW
conditioning. Due to a decrease of electric power demand, the
COP scale factor 1,5 -
control system changes the plant operation to FLAG 4, activating

These tables show that the assumptions regarding TES
capacity and HP nominal power are consistent with the expected
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performance of the GTCC range enhancer.
In fact, assuming Pel,HP = 8.5 kW in TES Charge mode and
Pth TES =11.5 kW in TES Discharge mode, 20 MWh are
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the HP. The HP condenser is connected to the INT heat
exchanger to heat up the compressor intake, and effectively
reduce the minimum load. Figure 9 shows the variation of
electrical power absorbed by the HP, highlighting the
responsiveness of the controller. During FLAG 4, the TES stores

the cold energy generated by the HP; consequently, its SOC

sufficient to ensure around 3 hours of autonomy. increases (Figure 10). FLAG 4 is active from 0.5 h to 2.5 h.
As indicated in At the end of the TES Charge, the HP is switched off and the
Table 3, assuming to scale up the HP to 3.5 MWel implies a
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system is brought to full power, with a loading ramp performed

COP scale factor equal to 1.5. This means that the full-scale HP entirely with no inlet conditioning, i.e., in FLAG 1. When
should have a better performance compared to the laboratory- maximum power is reached at 3.5 h, FLAG 1 is maintained for a
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scale one. In particular, its COP should vary between 2 and 3, further 0.75 h. Then, the control system activates TES Discharge
depending on the condenser temperature and the HP load. (FLAG 3) at time 4.25 h. This phase demonstrates how the
This assumption is perfectly coherent for a scale-up towards maximum power output of the GTCC can be increased by
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an industrial application. In fact, as already described in [3], the exploiting the cold energy that was previously stored in the TES.
performance of the laboratory HP is not good enough to be Figure 10 shows the trend of thermal power provided by the TES
considered for installation in a full-scale industrial plant. and its SOC.
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When the TES is fully discharged (after 6.25 h), the FLAG
2.4. Experimental campaign design automatically changes from 3 to 2, activating Continuous
A typical day of operation (1st of April 2021) was selected Cooling configuration and turning on the HP (Figure 9). FLAG
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to test the GTCC range enhancer. This day is characterised by 2 is a backup configuration, which can be used when the power
significant ambient temperature changes and a GTCC load demand is still high, but the TES is empty. This can be better
variation from minimum to maximum. The ambient temperature
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understood looking at Figure 8, where the operative FLAG is not

trend forecasted by the scheduler (i.e., the high-level controller consistent anymore with the scheduled FLAG. FLAG 2 is
described in [3]), had a very similar trend to the one measured in maintained until the end of the test.
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the laboratory during the actual test day.
The scheduler defined an optimal operation baseline
including normal operation (FLAG 1), TES Charge (FLAG 4)
and TES Discharge (FLAG 3). However, the initial state of
charge (SOC) of the TES was set lower to the scheduled one, in
order to cause its complete discharge and trigger the activation
Figure 11 shows the direct impact of the FLAGS 4-3-2 in
terms of inlet conditioning, highlighting the temperature increase
and decrease with respect to the ambient temperature.
Figure 12 shows the different power contributions of the
GTCC, displaying separately the power generated by the gas
turbine and by the components of the steam bottoming cycle.

GTP-22-1419 Reboli 6
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. Received July 21, 2022;
Accepted manuscript posted September 03, 2022. doi:10.1115/1.4055495
Copyright (c) 2022 by ASME

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FIGURE 8 – GTCC ELECTRIC POWER TRENDS DURING THE FULL DAY TEST.

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FIGURE 9 – HP ELECTRIC LOAD TREND DURING THE FULL DAY TEST.

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FIGURE 10 – TES THERMAL POWER TRENDS DURING THE FULL DAY TEST.

GTP-22-1419 Reboli 7
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. Received July 21, 2022;
Accepted manuscript posted September 03, 2022. doi:10.1115/1.4055495
Copyright (c) 2022 by ASME
FIGURE 11 – COMPARISON BETWEEN AMBIENT TEMPERATURE AND COMPRESSOR INLET TEMPERATURE.
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FIGURE 12 – EMULATED GTCC POWER SHARE DURING THE FULL DAY TEST.
3.1. TES Charge – FLAG 4 analysis
As already introduced in the previous section, the first part
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of the test, between 0 h and 2.5 h, was designed to validate the
range extension potential below the minimum environmental
limit by turning on the HP to warm-up the compressor inlet. This
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is a very efficient configuration because all the energy flows
converge for the same purpose, i.e., to reduce the GTCC load,
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and there are no parasitic effects as in the case of Continuous
Cooling (see Section 3.3).
In fact, the heat flow leaving the condenser is introduced
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into the cycle, reducing the GT specific power, and consequently
the GT load, while the electric power absorbed by the HP
contributes to a further reduction of the net power of the plant.
Moreover, the cold energy produced by the HP is not wasted, but
stored in form of latent heat into the TES. Since the condenser is
connected to INT, the ambient temperature indirectly influences
its temperature (and thus its pressure), affecting the COP of the
HP. However, the additional consumption of electric power by
GTP-22-1419
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the HP to charge the TES occurs when the price of electrical
energy is low, with minimum effect on the economic profitability
of the plant.
Figure 13 shows a detail of the first hours of this test. During
the first 30 minutes, the plant was operated at minimum load,
around 206-207 MW, in accordance to [3].
At 0.5 h, the electric power demand is reduced, and the
control system changes plant configuration accordingly,
switching from FLAG 1 to FLAG 4. The transition between
FLAGs took some time because it was necessary to turn on
valves, activate circulation pumps (around 2 minutes) and turn
on the HP, which is the most critical and time-demanding
process, requiring 12-15 minutes. In fact, before considering the
FLAG 4 configuration as fully operative, the HP must reach a
regulating condition, i.e., it is necessary to wait for the
evaporator to reach -6°C and then to activate the dedicated PID
(described in the first part of this study [3]).
Reboli 8
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. Received July 21, 2022;
Accepted manuscript posted September 03, 2022. doi:10.1115/1.4055495
Copyright (c) 2022 by ASME
FIGURE 13 - NET POWER PRODUCED WITH SETPOINT AND GT INLET
TEMPERATURE DURING FLAG 4
This start-up process can be analyzed in Figure 14, where
all the mismatches between HP electric load setpoint and the real
HP load are concentrated between 0.5 h and 0.7 h, during a
period of ~15 minutes corresponding to the configuration change
and the HP start-up ramp. Except for this first part, the HP
indirect controller described in [3] works properly and allows the
HP to follow the load adequately, as shown in Figure 14.
Figure 15 shows the thermal power trend and the SOC of the
TES. As explained in Section 2.2.2, the variation of electrical
power required by the HP is controlled indirectly by varying the
HTF flow rate. For this reason, the power absorbed by the TES
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shows some oscillations, which are related to the flow rate
variations made by the PID. The SOC grows linearly by about
60% in this first phase, and it is not significantly affected by
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thermal power fluctuations.
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FIGURE 14 - HP ELECTRIC LOAD AND ITS SETPOINT DURING FLAG 4.
The hot thermal power generated at the HP condenser is
transferred to the GT intake. The effect of temperature increase
at the GT inlet is clearly visible in Figure 13, where the
temperature increases from -20°C to -32°C. It can be noted that
the plant was not able to perfectly match the demand. This is
caused by the thermal capacitance of the physical components,
in particular of the INT heat exchanger.
GTP-22-1419
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FIGURE 15 - TES SOC AND THERMAL POWER DURING FLAG 4.
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Moreover, as explained in Section 2.2.1, the minimum load curve
of the test-rig mGT was identified as the set of the operative
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points where the mGT internal controller switches from a
constant speed logic to a TT,out constant logic. Therefore, varying
the inlet temperature when the turbomachinery is close to this
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condition, the mGT changes for some minutes its control logic.
Consequently, there are some sudden changes of the net power
generated by the mGT, which can be observed at 1.1 h, 1.4 h, 1.8
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h, 2.1 h in Figure 13. A possible way to avoid such disturbances
would be to operate the mGT far from its lower limit.
From 1 h to 2.2 h, the mismatch between power demand and
power produced by the GTCC had an average value of 0.715%
(relative to power demand). The mismatch between HP set point
and HP electric load was instead equal to 1.24% (relative to HP
set point).
3.2. TES Discharge – FLAG 3 analysis
The TES Discharge phase is used to increase the maximum
power output of the combined cycle, in order to exploit the cold
thermal energy previously stored in the TES. As shown in Figure
16, right after 3.5 h, the system is operating under FLAG 1 and
the GT is working at maximum load. In this condition, the GTCC
is generating an electric power of 376 MW, in agreement with
[3]. At time 4.25 h, the electric power demand increases, and the
FLAG is changed from 1 to 3. This is possible because the TES
is not fully discharged, otherwise FLAG 2 would have been set.
The start-up phase of the TES power control goes up to about
4.5 h, taking about 15 minutes, as shown in Figure 17. The
control takes quite a long time to increase the power provided by
the TES because it reacts to changes in the HTF flow rate as a
second order system, as explained in Section 2.2.3. At 4.5 h the
PID parameters were deliberately changed to make the control
unstable, resulting in power fluctuations. This procedure was
done to evaluate the influence of these oscillations on the plant
power production. As shown in Figure 16, the fluctuations do not
lead to changes in the power output of the combined cycle,
probably because they are damped by the large thermal
capacitance of the INT exchanger and its hydraulic circuit.
Reboli 9
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. Received July 21, 2022;
Accepted manuscript posted September 03, 2022. doi:10.1115/1.4055495
Copyright (c) 2022 by ASME
FIGURE 16 - NET POWER PRODUCED WITH SETPOINT AND
COMPRESSOR INLET TEMPERATURE DURING FLAG 3.
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FIGURE 17 – TES SOC, TES THERMAL POWER SETPOINT AND
THERMAL POWER RELEASED DURING FLAG 3.
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At 4.7 h the parameters of the controller were reset to their
original values, and the TES power demand was again followed
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with good accuracy, showing only a small lag due to the
complexity of the TES system. Figure 16 also shows the large
temperature reduction at the GT caused by the cold thermal
power released by the TES. The compressor inlet temperature
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drops from 22°C in FLAG 1 to 14-16°C in FLAG 3, depending
on the power required at the TES. The TES Discharge phase ends
at 6.25 h, as soon as the minimum TES Charge level is reached
pt
(Figure 17). From 4.8 h to 6.2 h (after the initial TES power
oscillations) the mismatch between power demand and power
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produced by the GTCC had an average value of 0.19% (relative
to power demand). The average mismatch between TES thermal
power and its set point was instead equal to 3.4% (relative to TES
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thermal power set point).
3.3. Continuous Cooling – FLAG 2 analysis
The Continuous Cooling phase is activated when the power
demand is still high, but the TES is empty. In fact, this phase
starts exactly at the end of the TES Discharge (6.25 h). As visible
in Figure 8 and shown in Figure 18, the start-up of the HP takes
approximately 15-20 minutes, because of the technical time
GTP-22-1419
required by the HP itself and the fact that the entire auxiliary
resistive load (ARL) circuit must be pre-cooled. Since only one
circulation pump (P3) is used to regulate TES and HP evaporator
load, it was not possible to turn on the HP and let the ARL circuit
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reached the proper temperature before stopping draining cold
energy from the TES. A possible upgrade to overcome this limit
could be to include an additional circulating pump to serve
exclusively the TES, in order to uncouple these two operative
conditions (HP startup and TES Discharge)”.
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In this configuration, the ARL is used as a thermal buffer,
as explained in the first part of this study [3]. During this start-
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up phase, the HTF flow rate to the INT exchanger is zero and the
HP is set to maximum power to speed up the cooling of the ARL
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circuit. As shown in Figure 19, during this period, the GTCC
maximum power returns to its nominal value. Shortly after 6.5
h, the flow to the INT starts growing, cooling the air entering the
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GT. The cooling transient of the INT ends approximately at 6.75
h. When the HP is at maximum power, the power output of the
combined cycle is less stable. This behavior is related to the
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physics of the system described in Section 2.2.2. In Continuous
Cooling, a large variation of flow rate to the INT is required to
change the outlet temperature of the HP evaporator. To reduce
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the HP load, the flow rate to the INT is reduced to almost zero,
resulting in a temperature increase at the INT. To increase the HP
load, the flow rate to the INT is increased significantly, causing
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a temperature reduction at the INT. This process causes the small
fluctuations in GT inlet temperature and generated power shown
in Figure 19. For higher ambient temperatures, a smaller flow
rate variation would probably be required to achieve a similar
variation in the HTF temperature at the evaporator outlet.
Figure 19 clearly shows that, regardless of these
fluctuations, the power generated by the GTCC does not vary
significantly, remaining always around 390MW, while the HP
power changes (Figure 18). In fact, both the electrical power
absorbed by the HP and the power generated by the GT increase
or decrease at the same time, causing minimum variations of the
GTCC power output. The increase of COP when the HP is
running at low power (i.e. low rotation speed, as described in [3])
should also be considered.
FIGURE 18 - ACTUAL HP ELECTRIC LOAD AND ITS SETPOINT
DURING FLAG 2.
Reboli 10
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. Received July 21, 2022;
Accepted manuscript posted September 03, 2022. doi:10.1115/1.4055495
Copyright (c) 2022 by ASME

TABLE 4 – EFFECT OF THE INLET HEATING+TES CHARGING AT

MINIMUM LOAD.
Inlet Heating +
Business as usual
TES Charge

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Compressor intake
20.9 32.1
temperature [°C]
Net power [MWel] 205.5 190.4 (-7.4%)
Fuel consumption [kg/s] 8.5 8.1 (-4.7%)

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Global efficiency [%] 50.4 49.0 (-2.7%)

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4.2. Inlet cooling

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The effect of the intake cooling is shown in Table 5. Also in
FIGURE 19 - NET POWER PRODUCED WITH SETPOINT AND this case, the percentage difference with the business-as-usual
COMPRESSOR INLET TEMPERATURE DURING FLAG 2. configuration is displayed between brackets for each specific

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parameter. Thanks to the reduction of intake temperature, the
In fact, this phenomenon is reason why the heat output at the GTCC can generate an extra 17.5MW during TES discharge.
evaporator does not vary significantly and so does the When the HP is used for inlet cooling instead, the extra

temperature at the GT inlet. The GT inlet temperature goes from
21°C to 12-13°C in this configuration, then remains
approximately constant throughout the duration of the FLAG,
despite the change in HP load.
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production is equal to 13.4 MW, with an auxiliary systems
consumption of 2.2 MW. As already explained, the variation of
the HP set point and load does not affect the net power produced

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by the plant. Consequently, a good operative strategy would be
An effective strategy for adopting Continuous Cooling to keep the HP at minimum load in Continuous Cooling mode.
could be to operate the HP at a fixed point, corresponding to its
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highest COP. However, it is possible that heat pumps with a TABLE 5 – EFFECT OF TES DISCHARGE AND OF CONTINUOS
wider operating range may give better results in regulation. COOLING AT MAXIMUM LOAD.
From 6.8 h to 8.2 h, the mismatch between power demand Inlet cooling
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and power produced by the GTCC had an average value of Business

Continuous
as usual TES Discharge
0.52% (relative to power demand). The average mismatch Cooling
between HP set point and HP electric load was instead equal to Compressor intake
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21.2/ 20 13.8 12.9

1.1% (relative to HP set point). temperature [°C]
Net power [Mwel] 377.0 394.5 (+4.6%) 390.4 (+3.6%)
Fuel consumption
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4. COMPARISON WITH BUSINESS AS USUAL 13.9 14.5 (+3.9%) 14.5 (+3.9%)

This section shows a comparison between the performance of a [kg/s]
Global efficiency
GTCC with and without the range enhancer proposed in this 56.3 56.7 (+0.7%) 56.1 (-0.4%)
[%]
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article. All the parameters are compared for inlet heating (TES
Charge – FLAG 4), inlet cooling (TES Discharge – FLAG 3) and
This impacts directly on the global efficiency of the GTCC,
continuous cooling – FLAG 2).
which gains 0.4 percentage points during TES discharge and
4.1. Inlet heating loses 0.6 percentage points in Continuous Cooling.
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In Figure 13, it is possible to observe the effect of inlet

heating comparing the behavior of the system before 0.5 h and 5. CONCLUSIONS
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between 1 h and 2 h. Inlet heating lowers the GTCC minimum The cyber-physical GTCC emulator introduced in [3] was
environmental load and reduces its fuel consumption (-4.7%). successfully operated in various conditions, and its performance
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When the price of electrical energy is low, this has a double was deeply analyzed. Relying on scale-up equations, it was
beneficial effect, reducing the variable costs of the plant and its possible to create a relationship between the behavior of the
pollution emission [6]. devices in the laboratory (mGT, HP and TES) with the
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Making an estimate of the different effects contributing to
the minimum load reduction, about 80% is caused by inlet
heating, while the remaining 20% is related to the power
consumption of the HP (3 MWel on average).
Table 4 shows the comparison between the performance of
the plant without and with inlet conditioning. The percentage
difference with the business-as-usual configuration is displayed
between brackets for each specific parameter.
components of a simulated heavy-duty plant. The integration of
the real components with a dynamic model of the bottoming
cycle made it possible to emulate a full GTCC in a laboratory
environment and to test the range enhancer on it.
The experimental campaign, which was designed to activate
all the possible plant configurations, showed the effectiveness of
the proposed four-levels control system. The proper FLAGs
were scheduled for all the test duration, reducing the compressor

GTP-22-1419 Reboli 11
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. Received July 21, 2022;
Accepted manuscript posted September 03, 2022. doi:10.1115/1.4055495
Copyright (c) 2022 by ASME

intake temperature to increase the maximum power generation doi: 10.1115/GT2015-43159.

of the plant, while heating the intake when it was necessary to [3] T. Reboli, M. Ferrando, L. Mantelli, L. Gini, and et al.,
reduce the minimum environmental load of the GTCC. The “Gas Turbine Combined Cycle Range Enhancer - Part 1:
control system also showed good adaptability to the current Cyber-physical setup (to be published),” in ASME Turbo

operative conditions, switching from TES discharge to inlet
cooling in case of fully discharged TES.
The GTCC range extender developed for the PUMP-HEAT
project could be easily adapted to other systems. In fact, it is
regulated by an independent control system, and it requires
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Expo 2022, 2022, pp. 1–14.
[4] B. Zalba, J. M. Marín, L. F. Cabeza, and H. Mehling,
“Review on thermal energy storage with phase change:
Materials, heat transfer analysis and applications,” Appl.
Therm. Eng., vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 251–283, Feb. 2003, doi:

d
minimum alterations of the pre-existent components. Thanks to 10.1016/S1359-4311(02)00192-8.
these features, it could be tailored both for GTCCs and GTs, [5] V. G. Gkoutzamanis, A. I. K. , Anastasia N.

ite
being included in the layout of new plants or integrated with Chatziangelidou, Theofilos G. Efstathiadis, and J. N. W.
existing facilities to improve their flexibility and provide a C. Alberto Traverso, “THERMAL ENERGY

ed
competitive advantage on the energy market. STORAGE FOR GAS TURBINE POWER
The cyber-physical approach for the emulation of GTCCs AUGMENTATION,” GPPS Conf., pp. 1–11, 2019.
could be adopted by other researchers, making it possible to [6] A. Sorce, A. Giugno, D. Marino, S. Piola, and R.

py
study heavy duty plants in a laboratory environment. Hopefully Guedez, “Analysis of a Combined Cycle Exploiting Inlet
this will help the development of technological solutions and Conditioning Technologies for Power Modulation,”
control strategies aimed at increasing the flexibility of GTCCs, Proc. ASME Turbo Expo, vol. 3, Nov. 2019, doi:

Co
making them a key element towards decarbonization. 10.1115/GT2019-91541.
Analyzing the results presented for this study, and [7] J. Duquette, D. O’Sullivan, S. Ceballos, and R. Alcorn,
conducting additional experiments, it will be possible to “Design and Construction of an Experimental Wave

ot
characterize the real behavior of the devices installed in the
laboratory, in particular mGT, HP and TES. The dynamic model [8]
will be then calibrated on the available data, in order to minimize
tN
the error between simulations and experimental tests. For this
purpose, it will be necessary to determine the exact time
constants of the main physical phenomena and to accurately [9]
rip
Energy Device Emulator Test Rig,” 2009.
J. Agrawal and M. Aware, “Photovoltaic system
emulator,” PEDES 2012 - IEEE Int. Conf. Power
Electron. Drives Energy Syst., 2012, doi:
10.1109/PEDES.2012.6484360.
S. Tan, W. Z. Song, S. Yothment, J. Yang, and L. Tong,

model the effect of the various inlet conditioning strategies on “ScorePlus: An integrated scalable cyber-physical
the turbomachinery. Thanks to the high accuracy of the model, it experiment environment for Smart Grid,” 2015 12th
will be possible to test the plant and its control system also in a Annu. IEEE Int. Conf. Sensing, Commun. Networking,
sc

a model-in-the-loop setup. In this way, the performance of the SECON 2015, pp. 381–389, Nov. 2015, doi:
plant will be easily evaluated on multiple scenarios, providing a 10.1109/SAHCN.2015.7338338.
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more deep understanding of the GTCC range enhancer. [10] D. Tucker, P. Pezzini, and K. M. Bryden, “Cyber-
Physical Systems: A New Paradigm for Energy
Technology Development,” Jun. 2018, doi:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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10.1115/POWER2018-7315.
This project has received funding from
[11] T. Reboli, I. Rossi, A. Traverso, and G. Torelli, “A
the European Union's Horizon 2020 research
guideline to link the off-design performance of a micro-
and innovation programme under grant
gas turbine to a heavy-duty gas turbine in a test rig that
ed

agreement No 764706, PUMP-HEAT.

aim to investigate flexibility of GTCC,” E3S Web Conf.,
The authors devote a special acknowledgement to Iacopo
vol. 238, p. 05003, Feb. 2021, doi:
Rossi and Yutaka Watanabe for the help provided on the
10.1051/E3SCONF/202123805003.
pt

development of control systems and dynamic models.

[12] E. Lerma, R. Costa-Castelló, R. Griñó, and C. Sanchis,
The authors devote a special acknowledgement also to the
“Duino-Based Learning (DBL) in Control Engineering
ce

project partners MAYEKAWA Europe NV, i-TES Srl and SIT

Courses,” IEEE Int. Conf. Emerg. Technol. Fact. Autom.
Technologies Srl for having provided equipment and advise for
ETFA, vol. 2019-September, pp. 798–803, Sep. 2019,
the new laboratory realization.
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[13]
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[2] M. A. Ancona, M. Bianchi, F. Melino, and A. Peretto,
“Power Augmentation Technologies: Part I — Literature
Review,” Proc. ASME Turbo Expo, vol. 3, Aug. 2015,
doi: 10.1109/ETFA.2019.8869451.
W. Mantilla, R. Guédez, J. García, and A. Sorce, “Short-
term optimization of a combined cycle power plant
integrated with an inlet air conditioning unit,” in
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10.1115/GT2020-15162.

GTP-22-1419 Reboli 12