First firing of the world’s largest and most powerful gas turbine, developed by Siemens, was achieved as scheduled on 20 December 2007. This marks the beginning of a planned 18-month trial operation period at the E.ON Irsching 4 power plant near Ingolstadt, Germany. After successful completion of the trial operation, Siemens will expand the plant to a high-efficiency combined-cycle power plant (CCPP) with a total output of 530MW and a peak load efficiency of over 60%. Handover of the CCPP to E.ON Kraftwerke, a subsidiary of E.ON Energy, is expected to be made in 2011. E.ON and Siemens are investing an estimated total of EUR 500 million in this endeavor.
