Data-based investigation on the performance of an independent gas turbine for electricity generation using real power measurements and other closely related parameters

Abstract

Generally, sub-Saharan countries possess abundant energy resources including renewables and fossil sources, with natural gas potentially being among the more abundant resource second only to solar power. For conventional electrical energy generation, gas turbines are one of the most prominent technologies being adopted in producing electricity from natural gas. Nigeria, for instance has the largest natural gas reserves in Africa, and the 9th largest in the World. Thus, more than 80% of her electricity generation utilizes gas turbines. To effectively monitor the state of these gas turbines, several sensors are located on the turbines to acquire data in real time. In this data article, we present the acquired data from a 5.68-MW gas turbine installed as an independent power producing unit in a community in Ogun State, Nigeria over a period of six months. Performing various descriptive analysis on the dataset, the real power measurements were taken as the target parameters, and based on a threshold correlation co-efficient of 0.5, only sixteen (16) parameters were shown to be more closely positively correlated with the real power measurements. Thus, any variation in the real power supplied by the gas turbine would have a commensurate effect on any of the other 16 parameters identified, and could thus help in troubleshooting or scheduling maintenance. Keywords: Gas turbines, Electrical energy, Energy efficiency, Data analytics