A Brief History of Westinghouse Gas Turbines: The First 50 Years

As documented elsewhere in the collection compiled to document the history of Westinghouse Power Generation, Westinghouse Electric Corporation has been a major supplier of power generating steam turbines since the beginning of the 20th century.

Siemens Energy, Inc. located at The Quadrangle, across the road from the University of Central Florida's main campus on Alafaya Trail in Orlando, is an important member of the Central Florida business community. But less than 20 years ago, prior to September of 1998, the site was home to Westinghouse Electric Corporation's Power Generation Business Unit (PGBU), which moved to the Orlando in the early 1980s and became one of the largest employers in the area.

The migration of the Westinghouse to Orlando from its long-time headquarters location in Pennsylvania started in 1982, with the relocation of the Steam Turbine Generator Division (STGD). This group combined Westinghouse operations coming from East Pittsburgh and Lester, two of the original Westinghouse manufacturing sites built in the early 1900s. The new Westinghouse Power Generation World Headquarters, located on the newly developed Quadrangle property at Alafaya Trail and University Boulevard, was dedicated in 1983.

Four years later, in 1987, another group of Westinghouse professionals comprising the Combustion Turbine Operations (CTO) moved to Orlando from its headquarters in Concordville to join the steam turbine generator group. CTO was soon joined by the final major Westinghouse operation to move south, the Power Generation Services Division (PGSD), also moving from its headquarters in suburban Philadelphia.

This exhibit briefly recounts the over 50-year history of Westinghouse's combustion turbine—also known as gas turbine—business, starting with its birth in the late 1940s as an outgrowth of Westinghouse's Aviation Gas Turbine Division (AGTD). AGTD was born during World War II as the developer and supplier of jet engines for the U.S. Navy's carrier-based fighter planes, and remained a major supplier to the Navy until Westinghouse exited that business in 1960.

The story told here really begins with the early pioneering applications by Westinghouse of gas turbines for industrial and electric power generation in the 1950. It continues through the exciting development of the electric utility market in the late 1960s and into the 1970s with the advent of the new combined cycle—gas turbine and steam turbine—power plant technology. The narrative continues through the lean times for the U.S. gas turbine market during the early 1980s, only to be supplanted by the growing international market—especially in the Middle East—for large gas turbine generators. This was followed by the boom years with the growth of the Independent Power Producer (IPP) market of the late 1990s.

Although the Westinghouse gas turbine story told by the exhibit ends with the Siemens acquisition in 1998, the story continues today as gas–turbine-based power generation has, since the early 2000s, become the dominant form of new electric power generation installations worldwide.

Although the name on the sign at the entrance on Alafaya Trail has changed, the Westinghouse Power Generation legacy lives on in Central Florida.

This exhibit was created based on material contributed by Harry Jaeger, Westinghouse employee (1971-2003) and retiree, now making his home in Longwood, Florida.

Author’s disclaimer:
There are two factors that limit this writer’s perspective on the subject of this treatise. For one, he is a relative new comer, being that he joined the Gas Turbine Division in 1973, 40 years after this story begins. Second, the next 30 years of his career with Westinghouse were spent in Marketing and Sales, except for a short stint in the Engineering Department when the Advanced Programs section (later known as “Long Range Development”), was moved from Marketing to Engineering. Both of these shortcomings in the writer’s credentials will become obvious to those in the know as one proceeds in the reading of this. Moreover, there are a number of departures ventured away from publicly known information, where the writer may have offered his opinion and/or personal observation, and those, by their nature, may not be entirely factual. Others who may know better are always invited to set the record straight.
Harry Jaeger, January 2016