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Energy & Renewables vocabulary · Power Generation and Power Plants

Combined cycle

Meaning in energy & renewables, with examples

nounCommon term

In energy & renewables, combined cycle means: A plant design in which a gas turbine generates electricity and its hot exhaust makes steam for a steam turbine, which generates more electricity from the same fuel.

In Turkish: kombine çevrim, birleşik çevrim

How it is used

Usually seen as combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) or combined cycle power plant. Modern CCGT plants reach efficiencies of around 60 percent, compared with roughly 35 to 40 percent for open-cycle gas turbines. Before a noun it is often hyphenated: a combined-cycle plant.

Example sentences

  1. The new combined cycle plant uses 30 percent less gas per MWh than the old units.

  2. In the evening, combined cycle units often set the market price.

Common collocations

  • combined cycle gas turbine
  • combined cycle power plant
  • CCGT efficiency
  • combined-cycle unit
  • gas turbineAn engine that burns gas, usually natural gas, and uses the hot expanding gases to spin a turbine connected to a generator. It can start and change output quickly.
  • steam turbineA machine in which high-pressure steam flows over rows of blades and turns a shaft connected to a generator. Coal, nuclear, geothermal and many biomass plants use one.
  • natural gasA fossil fuel made mostly of methane, burned in power plants, industry and homes. It emits less CO2 than coal for the same electricity, but it is still a fossil fuel.
  • combined heat and powerProducing electricity and useful heat at the same time from one fuel, so that heat a normal power plant would waste is used in buildings or industry.

More terms: Power Generation and Power Plants

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