Patent ID: 8826670

Claim:
A method for controlling a gas turbine in a power station while operating under normal continuous load operation, comprising at least one compressor with at least one variable row of inlet guide vanes, at least one combustion chamber and at least one turbine, wherein a turbine inlet temperature, a turbine outlet temperature and a pitch angle of at least one row of compressor inlet guide vanes, are controlled by a controller within a set of limits, the method comprising: increasing and decreasing a protection relevant limit comprising one of the turbine inlet temperature, turbine outlet temperature, and a limit for the angle of at least one row of compressor inlet guide vanes relative to a standard design value within which the controller automatically operates the gas turbine during operation of the power station under normal continuous load operation, the increasing and decreasing of the protection relevant limit comprising: manually selecting one of the following settings of operation for the controller as a first selection to control operation of the power station for a first time period: a power optimized operation in which the limit for the angle of at least one row of compressor inlet guide vanes is increased relative to a standard design limit to increase power output of the power station, an efficiency optimized operation in which the limit for the angle of at least one row of compressor inlet guide vanes is reduced relative to a standard design limit to increase efficiency of operation of the power station, a life optimized operation in which the limit for the turbine inlet temperature full load and for the turbine inlet temperature part load are reduced relative to a standard design limit to increase the life of the power station, a NOx-optimized operation in which the limit for the turbine inlet temperature full load is reduced relative to a standard design limit to reduce NOx emissions of the power station, and a CO-optimized operation in which the limit for the turbine inlet temperature part load is increased relative to a standard design limit to reduce CO emissions of the power station; after the first selection of settings of operation for the controller is selected, increasing or decreasing the at least one protection relevant limit by manually selecting one of the other settings that is not the setting of the first selection to select a new setting of operation for the controller as a second selection to control operation of the power station for a second time period.