Doosan Enerbility Signs Contract for Gas Turbine Rotor Life Extension

Disassembly and Assembly Processes All Conducted at Changwon Factory

Doosan Enerbility announced on the 30th that it has signed a life extension contract for six gas turbine rotors with Korea Southern Power.

The rotor is a cylindrical structure with attached rotating blades, a core component within the gas turbine that performs high-speed rotation at 3,600 revolutions per minute at temperatures exceeding 1300℃. Through rotor life extension, the gas turbine can operate for approximately 10 more years.

Gas turbine rotor life extension work scene (Photo by Doosan Enerbility)

Gas turbine rotor life extension, emerging as a way to optimize power plant operation and maintenance costs, requires the highest level of technical expertise and has mainly been carried out by overseas original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of gas turbines.

Doosan Enerbility, having succeeded in developing its own gas turbine model in 2019, was recognized for its technical capabilities and received an order for the life extension of two gas turbine rotors from Korea Southern Power in 2022. The company has continuously strengthened its capabilities in the domestic gas turbine industry and successfully secured additional orders.

Doosan Enerbility performs the entire life extension process?including complete rotor disassembly, remaining life evaluation, new disc replacement, and reassembly?at its Changwon factory. Since all processes are conducted domestically, the company can respond swiftly to various customer demands. In particular, it conducts high-speed balancing work on rotors with attached blades to preemptively check for vibration occurrence at all speed ranges below the maximum operating speed (3600 rpm). This minimizes the vibration occurrence rate in actual field operations.

To enter the global gas turbine service market, Doosan Enerbility signed a business agreement in 2022 with Korea Southern Power and 17 domestic gas turbine specialized SMEs. Currently, domestic partners participate in key rotor life extension tasks such as rotor fastening bolts and compressor blades, and the company plans to gradually expand collaboration areas.

Seungwoo Son, Head of Power Service BG at Doosan Enerbility, stated, "It is very meaningful to once again prove the competitiveness of the domestic gas turbine industry and to have an opportunity to further advance our technical capabilities. We will successfully carry out this project together with Korea Southern Power and domestic gas turbine partners, and actively pursue entry into the global gas turbine life extension market based on this."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.