On a cold and dreary October day in 2013, I paid a visit to the Ulrich Hartmann Combined Cycle Power Plant in Ingolstadt, Germany. At that time, the plant was owned by E.ON and in commercial operation since 2011. Based on Siemens Energy’s SGT5-8000H gas turbine, the plant was the first one to break the 60% net LHV (lower heating value) efficiency barrier. On the day of my visit, at 10C ambient temperature, the monitors in the operator room indicated 540 MW net output at 60.3% efficiency.
