One Place, Multiple Event Options

Building EV Charging Infrastructure for Maximum Benefit

One of the major objectives of new charging infrastructure investment is to encourage rapid adoption of EVs by relieving "range" anxiety while reducing GHG emissions. However, the effect of the charging system loads on the grid creates the challenges to Utilities. This can be overcome by designing charging systems as "connected microgrids" as defined in IEEE 2030.7 standards for Microgrid Controllers. This presentation will share utility's plan and vision of using EV charging Microgrid system to provide services to the utility that allow additional DERs to join the grid and maximize the renewable penetration: for example, fast frequency control, demand response and curtailment. This will also allow the EV system to rapidly pay for itself. The system can include PV and energy storage that enhance capability to provide services. When V2G capabilities exist, the data quality, data security and system effectiveness will be further addressed and enhanced. With the additional resources inside the microgrid, both load and load ramp rate are controlled. Existing grid infrastructure does not have to be upgraded, since microgrid controller can follow a secure load profile specified by the Utilities. EV charging systems can be integrated into the grid without large investments in power grid equipment with microgrid approach. Additionally, FERC Order 2222 mandates that the ISO offer renewable DER markets allowing smaller DERs bid into the market. This provides an additional mechanism for EV charging system to generate revenue. The grid is rapidly losing inertia due to fossil fueled generator retirements causing significant loss in power system security. EV microgrids can provide the necessary security by providing synthetic inertia while at the same time providing reliability to the loads behind the microgrid meter.

Climate Changes Everything: Stanford's Decarbonization Journey

Climate change is changing everything at Stanford University, with comprehensive decarbonization at the forefront.
In 2015, we commissioned a first-of-its-kind, $500 million district thermal energy system. That system, in turn, is now powered by 100% renewable energy. In the meantime, we are pushing the envelope of building energy efficiency and instrumentation and control across a diverse and demanding built environment.
And we've only just begun - from transportation electrification to resource recovery to deep digitalization - for Stanford's 24/7 operational benefit; to meet our aggressive sustainability, resilience, and justice goals; and as a living lab and global exemplar.
My presentation brings the audience along for a deep dive into Stanford's one-of-a-kind sustainability, operational decarbonization, and district energy journey. It's a challenging and wonderful ride and, again, we have only just begun.

City Infrastructure for District Energy

Maryland?s largest microgrid case study

In 2022, Unison Energy commissioned a 4MW combined heat & power microgrid at Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center. The CHP serves greater than 90% of the Gaylord?s electrical and thermal needs. The Energy as a Service contract also included central utility plant improvements at no capital cost to the Resort. The presentation will discuss the challenges faced and solutions developed between the Gaylord and Unison to bring this microgrid online as well as the system?s performance in the first year. James Obermaier, Director of Engineering at Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center and Adam Nogiec, VP of Engineering at Unison Energy, explains how the microgrid was designed to provide the Gaylord with energy cost, resilience, sustainability and operational benefits. Gaylord National Harbor Resort and Convention Center, owned by Ryman Hospitality Properties and run by Marriott International, is the central pillar of a 42-acre National Harbor development project along the Potomac River in Prince George?s County, Maryland. At 2.4 million square feet, it is the largest non-gaming, combined hotel and convention center on the Eastern Seaboard, encompassing 2,000 guest rooms, over a half-million square feet of convention and meeting space, a 19-story glass atrium, seven restaurants, and a 20,000-square-foot spa. Powering this impressive structure is no simple task. Gaylord National Harbor consumes a tremendous amount of energy, with three utility feeds, an electrical lineup 90 feet long, five 700 HP boilers, and four 2000-ton chillers. Ten years after the resort opened in 2008, Unison Energy worked with Ryman and Marriott to install a more efficient energy solution ? a combined heat and power (CHP) plant that functions as a microgrid, the largest of its kind in Maryland. Unison Energy designed, built, and continues to own and operate the 6 MW system, which now provides the facility with over 85% of its electricity. The system captures waste heat to provide 1.3 million therms of hot water annually, offsetting over 60% of the hot water system?s natural gas usage and allowing Gaylord to shut down three of the five boilers on site while keeping the remaining two boilers on low-fire during warmer months. With Unison Energy?s CHP system in place, Gaylord has reduced its energy costs by approximately $1 million a year, a 15% drop from prior total energy spend. The resort has also lowered its carbon footprint by an impressive 32,800 tons per year, representing a 59% reduction compared to the Maryland electricity grid. What?s more, Gaylord staff now have peace of mind knowing the lights will stay on for hotel guests and convention hosts, even during grid outages.

Western Energy's Responsible Energy Plan

Interconnection Process of Large Renewable Energy Resources with different ISOs

The integration of Renewable Energy (wind and solar), as well as Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), on the bulk electric system continues to rise. The realization of a project encompasses many phases, which can be summarized in a few steps: due diligence and available export capacity investigation, land acquisition, design, interconnection application with the respective Independent System Operation (ISO) or regional transmission organization (RTO), various studies and consequent decision-making milestones leading to construction, testing and commissioning of the project.
New and even seasoned wind and solar developers can struggle to navigate the regulatory landscape when making interconnection requests. This paper explores the different steps required within the interconnection process of renewable projects before executing an Interconnection Agreement with ISOs/RTOs, and their timeline. The paper will cover the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), California ISO (CAISO), Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM), New York ISO (NYISO), ISO-New England (ISO-NE) and Southwest Power Pool (SPP). All processes start with submitting an interconnection request (IR) with the ISO/RTO through its portal. Some have specific windows that are highlighted. The paper also details the technical and non-technical requirements for such a request
Once the ISO/RTO deems the IR valid, interconnection studies are conducted to investigate the impact of the project on the transmission system. Generation Interconnection studies typically consist of system impact studies and a facility study. The system impact study includes steady-state, short circuit and dynamic stability analyses. Each ISO/RTO has a sequence of these aforementioned studies. The paper helps navigate the difference and lists the process for ERCOT's Full Interconnection Study, Quarterly Stability Assessment and Resource Registration phases, MISO's Definitive Planning Phases, SPP's Definitive Interconnection System Impact Study, CAISO's interconnection study phases, and feasibility and System Impact Study phases for PJM, NYISO and ISO-NE at a high level.

STATCOM for DER Integration and Volt/Var Optimization

Rapid growth of distributed energy resources (DER) has provided many benefits such as clean energy, reduced emissions, and creation of new green jobs. However, given its intermittent nature, large scale penetration of DERs poses new challenges that impact the power quality and reliability of the distribution grid.
This presentation will focus on a case study performed for a southwest utility which is currently experiencing power quality issues such as rapid voltage changes (RVC) and over voltages on a particular distribution feeder with significant distributed solar PV penetration. The presentation will start with showing how IEEE 1547 Standard RVC requirement is violated for rapid cloud cover or sudden tripping of distributed solar generation units. Afterwards, scenarios with distribution static synchronous compensators (D-STATCOM) will be provided which will demonstrate how to mitigate the power quality issues observed as well as how to optimally size and place the D-STATCOMs along the feeder for Volt/Var Optimization. The presentation will conclude with a hosting capacity analysis that illustrates how the D-STATCOMs enable increased distributed solar PV penetration for this feeder while keeping the feeder voltage within ANSI C84.1 Standard voltage limits.

Virtual Transmission: The Missing Link to Zero-Emissions Electric Grids

For many years, electricity networks have faced the dual challenges of needing additional power flow capacity on transmission lines at specific areas of the grid, and managing excess transmission capacity at areas that required less energy. This imbalance ultimately led to network congestion and underutilization, which increased costs for both the provider and the consumer.

The rise of renewable energy generation has created new demand and bottlenecks on transmission systems designed for less variable, legacy generation assets. As a result, transmission operators are increasingly interested in low-risk, yet scalable, alternatives to the conventional method of energy transmission through traditional power lines. Today, the use of battery-based energy storage as a transmission enhancing asset is the most cost-effective and sustainable solution for networks to maintain reliable and affordable energy on the modern grid.

Deploying storage as "virtual transmission" involves the placement of an energy storage asset along the transmission line at strategic points to inject or absorb power and mimic the transmission line flow. While this method is a fairly new approach to alleviating power line congestion and underutilization, network operators around the world are adding, or planning to add, hundreds of megawatts of capacity.

Compared to traditional transmission resources, virtual transmission provides myriad benefits. It can be flexibly located as needed -- without environmentally or socially invasive construction -- and can dramatically reduce the time to plan, permit, and deploy transmission infrastructure. Additionally, virtual transmission provides reactive power solutions to preserve system performance during temporary transmission outages or prevent blackouts, while significantly lowering network owners' infrastructure investment costs. Storage as transmission will play a critical role in developing the future of the energy grid, helping provide the most sustainable and reliable path in power generation for years to come.

Drivers for the 3rd Grid: Are You Ready for DERs' Data Demand?

To manage, monitor and control the influx of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), it's estimated the number of Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) will need to increase by 600 to 1500%. As utilities transition from constant to variable generation services, they're faced with how to efficiently monitor and control power from a diverse generational mix. For instance, when Black & Veatch polled U.S. utilities in 2021, Renewable Integration topped the list as the number one most challenging issue. It will take a master planning effort at a system level and what many refer to as the 3rd Grid to reach our clean energy aspirations. This presentation addresses what's needed to plan and manage bi-directional power at both the transmission and distribution levels, the criticality of digitizing the grid and how to apply and densify transmission protection and control schemes to the distribution system. The audience will receive an overview of distribution monitoring and control devices and the roles they play in the future grid, such as reclosers, switches, capacitors, voltage regulators and PMUs while hearing real life case studies. Finally, this presentation dives into everything the 3rd Grid entails; why Private LTE (PLTE) is a leading solution for the rapid transfer of large volumes of data generated from DERs, and enables utilities to operate the grid reliably and efficiently with high performance edge computing and analytics.

Challenges and Solutions Around Gas Turbines

P3 and Energy as a Service

The Energy Trifecta: Balancing Sustainability, Resiliency and Affordability

More and more, organizations are finding themselves needing to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. At the same time, extreme weather means organizations need to harden their operations against outages. It's a balancing act with three competing drivers: sustainability, affordability and resiliency.
How exactly are manufacturers supposed to drive fast and furious carbon reduction goals while still reducing costs and ensuring more reliable backup power for their operations? Can resiliency and sustainability help them gain a competitive advantage when the supply chain is disrupted? What are the steps they need to take to achieve the coveted energy trifecta?
We'll look at customer case studies such as Bausch + Lomb and discuss how new funding options and incentives make now the best time to install distributed generation.
Attendees will learn:
• How sustainability and resiliency can help them adapt in these times of disruption
• How to push through challenges to find the right energy balance
• Which financing mechanisms and sustainable and resiliency solutions are the most promising for organizations
• Why collaboration across industries can better help organizations achieve their own energy trifecta

Roundtable Discussion on the Energy Trifecta: Balancing Sustainability, Resiliency and Affordability

More and more, organizations are finding themselves needing to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. At the same time, extreme weather means organizations need to harden their operations against outages. It's a balancing act with three competing drivers: sustainability, affordability and resiliency.
How exactly are manufacturers supposed to drive fast and furious carbon reduction goals while still reducing costs and ensuring more reliable backup power for their operations? Can resiliency and sustainability help them gain a competitive advantage when the supply chain is disrupted? What are the steps they need to take to achieve the coveted energy trifecta?
We'll look at customer case studies such as Bausch + Lomb and discuss how new funding options and incentives make now the best time to install distributed generation.
Attendees will learn:
• How sustainability and resiliency can help them adapt in these times of disruption
• How to push through challenges to find the right energy balance
• Which financing mechanisms and sustainable and resiliency solutions are the most promising for organizations
• Why collaboration across industries can better help organizations achieve their own energy trifecta

Hybrid Grid Emulation for Renewable Energy Projects

The Challenge
Enel Green Power (Enel GP) was building its first wind farm + battery storage project, consisting of 79 wind turbines at their Azure Sky Wind Farm in Throckmorton, Texas. The project needed to be completed within a few months to meet a power purchase agreement (PPA) to supply power to end customers.

Timely connection is imperative in order to avoid a number of critical risks, including reputational risk to the company, default on contractual and legal commitments, and construction risks.

The Solution
As a world leader in the energy transition, Enel has centered sustainability as a key aspect of its commissioning projects. Enel has a longstanding relationship with Aggreko, and for the Azure Wind Project, Enel challenged Aggreko to lower emissions while still providing its superior customer service, reliability, efficiency, and engineering expertise. Aggreko rose to the challenge, producing a fully customized commissioning solution with advanced control technology and batteries that would lower emissions.

A project like this would normally require three combustion generators. However, Aggreko provided off-grid contingency power and a 4.5 MW hybrid grid emulation package, including a 1MW BESS hybrid solution. Aggreko also implemented advanced load control systems which reduce the system's emissions by up to 67%.

The Impact
Aggreko's hybrid approach reduced fuel consumption and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 67%, and resulted in significant cost savings. With Aggreko's support, Enel successfully tested and commissioned the Azure Sky Wind Farm, meeting end-user needs while helping Enel get closer to its ESG target. The system is projected to generate around 1.3 TWh of renewable energy each year, avoiding more than 842,000 tons of CO2 emissions a year.

This pilot program proves what is possible when clean, innovative hybrid solutions are applied to commissioning projects.

Benefits of Private Networks for Utilities

Utility infrastructure is a backbone of modern societies, but often lacks the innovative technologies used across other industries today. This session from ADRF's John Shubin, Director, Sales for North Americas, will provide a high-level overview of the operational benefits utility providers gain from modernizing wireless infrastructure with private networks. Private networks enable organizations to bring their wireless networks closer to the enterprise, improving their wireless capabilities for a range of use cases and benefits to production, stations, transmission grids and other functions.

Constant communication is vital for customers to receive their service, and for providers to triage any issues within their vast, connected systems. John will discuss how private networks are scalable and can be designed to serve a specific site or a larger regional area, depending on the provider's needs. Additionally, they will discuss the different frequency bands and how they should be used to create seamless connectivity. For example, certain bands are better for wide area coverage, while others are better for industrial sites or indoor facilities.

The presentation will touch on best practices for working with wireless equipment providers to design and deploy seamless wireless connectivity within your organization. Attendees will understand how the industrial transformation within utilities organizations changes connectivity needs and how private networks can be used to help providers in the space evolve.

Spares. Know before you go.

We've all done it... left the house for a trip and turned right around because we forgot something. Work crews headed out for preventive maintenance tasks are no different. Where it becomes different is the cost of an entire crew being delayed because of $20 in parts.
Spares planning often takes a back seat to the other elements of planning, yet the lack thereof can bring the entire operation to a halt. Knowing what is needed, what is available, and how to stage and coordinate the acquisition of spaces is a critical part of planning.

How Drones & Data Visualisation Software Kept the Lights on For Millions

For too long the maintenance of the towers and powerlines that make up the American power grid has been a subpar endeavour. It is a dangerous job for the linepersons who have to scale the lengthy heights of the assets. The helicopters often used in their place instead are an environmental travesty that burn through copious amounts of needless CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the approach to asset maintenance taken by providers is often one of reaction rather than proactivity. For evidence, we need look no further than one of the leading causes of wildfires across the American west coast: badly maintained powerlines.

We believe we have the solution that addresses all those issues.

Drone pilots and accompanying engineers can launch a drone to the same height as a tower in a matter of seconds. By using a camera-strapped drone, we can get within touching distance of an asset and capture 4K imagery for utility providers to action almost immediately through cloud-based software. While a lineperson would typically get through 1 or 2 towers a day, a drone team can complete up to 10 within the same timeframe. This means spotting hazardous faults or damage considerably faster and at a fraction of the CO2 output of a helicopter. Our method also means that lines can remain live while being inspected and crucially, that humans are kept safely on the ground.

Last year, we completed 35,000 flights for one of America's largest providers. That's 7,000 hours of inspection time and countless faults caught. Our aim is to instil a regular and consistent approach to asset maintenance that makes sure that power cuts need never happen where avoidable - and, most importantly, are never the cause of wildfires.

The Economics of Hydrogen Production

The energy transition is accelerating around the world, with a wide range of technologies and initiatives designed to reduce carbon emissions across all sectors of the economy. Hydrogen has emerged as having a potentially important role in the transition, providing a solution particularly useful for addressing hard to abate applications. Some of the solutions being considered for clean hydrogen include power generation, natural gas blending, renewable energy storage, transportation fuel, steel manufacturing and synthetic fuel production. Clean hydrogen production on a global basis is expected to increase significantly, creating many new business opportunities.

For hydrogen to be a viable solution, it has to meet specific criteria depending on the applications and competing solutions, especially economics. Developing a hydrogen solution requires careful attention be made in each step of the hydrogen value chain, to ensure solutions meet the specific needs for each customer and each application. Having a firm understanding of the options and implications in sourcing hydrogen is one of the key elements necessary to have a compelling value proposition and solution.

There exists a wide variety of hydrogen generation technologies and approaches. Each hydrogen generation approach has its own unique characteristics, with important implications for economics, carbon intensity, distribution requirements, scale economies, etc. The selection of a hydrogen generation approach is a critical decision in building out a hydrogen business, along with determining location, scale, and other characteristics.

This webinar will present and characterize the major dominant hydrogen generation approaches, and provide an understanding what the key configuration options are and the implications for those choices on hydrogen generation costs. Hydrogen generation technologies to be covered prospectively include:
- Steam methane reformation with carbon capture and sequestration;
- Methane pyrolysis;
- Biomass to hydrogen;
- Renewable energy to hydrogen (e.g., wind, solar and hydropower);
- Renewable natural gas to hydrogen; and
- Metal-water hydrogen production.

Resilient Microgrids for Critical Loads

Resilient Microgrids for Critical Loads: How Utilities are Looking Beyond Traditional Energy Services to Provide Power in Under-Resourced Communities

As the number and duration of climate-related disasters continue to increase in intensity, both planned and unplanned grid interruptions are happening at greater rates with dire economic losses, for both the utility and customer alike. Moreover, studies have shown that under-resourced, low-income communities are among those most vulnerable to negative impacts.
Antiquated infrastructure and mounting pressure to electrify the grid, reduce CO2 and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions have illuminated the vast delta between what infrastructure upgrades will cost and the funds available to make them. As solar, wind, and energy storage continue to become more commercially viable, utilities are evolving to embrace distributed assets and leverage them to their advantage. This presentation will examine the value of distributed customer-sited, utility owned energy storage and generation assets in microgrids that specifically create resilience, offset economic losses from power outages, meet utility mandates for greater renewable penetration and reduction of GHG and CO2 emissions while strengthening the grid with greater economic returns for the utility and customer alike. SimpliPhi Power will highlight several case studies from deployments across the globe in partnership with utilities and power companies that demonstrate the economic, climatic, and environmental benefits of distributed microgrids at the customer site, including:
Maycroft Housing- DC
Ludlow Taylor- DC
Briceburg/PG&E: Boxpower- CA
Liberty Utilities: Boxpower- CA (Tahoe)
Mt Sterling Microgrid/Duke Energy- NC
StoneEdge Farm: CA
Enel- Chile
PowerCo- NZ

Oregon State Treasury Office Building Microgrid

The new Oregon State Treasury office building represents a sustainable and economic approach to increased resiliency, reshaping owner and tenant expectations of distributed energy resources. Located in Salem, Oregon, this 33,770SF two-story office building is designed and built to remain operational after the Cascadia fault magnitude 9.0 earthquake. Renewable energy resources, including solar photovoltaics and a battery energy storage system, provide economic and environmental benefits during normal operation through onsite energy generation, peak demand shaving and load shifting. A 238kWDC rooftop PV array is anticipated to offset 100% of the facilities annual energy consumption while the 250kW/224kWh battery energy storage system will enable the facility to reduce peak demand by over 70%. This equates to a carbon reduction of 139 tons in the first year and anticipated energy savings of nearly $22,000/yr with current energy profiles and rates, respectively. By employing microgrid technologies, the Treasury is further leveraging these onsite renewable energy resources to maximize operational runtime in the event the utility is unavailable. Whereas a traditional grid-tied PV array is required to disconnect and become a stranded asset during a utility outage, the microgrid enables the PV array, battery system, as well as a standby diesel generator, to operate in parallel during and after an event. The combination of these distributed energy resources is expected to extend the Treasury's facility operations during an event by 50% over relying on the diesel fuel tank alone. As economic and environmental conditions continue to evolve, the integration of microgrid technologies within the built environment is certain to be of increasing value to both owners and tenants.

Building a Microgrid in the Arctic

• Brett Pingree, Vice President, Sales, Endurance Wind Power Inc

Kotzebue Electric Association (KEA) is a Inupiaq village located above the Arctic Circle in Alaska. The village of 3,000+ people is a islanded microgrid that relies on diesel engines to provide power. Kotzebue is an entry point into the remote Alaskan wilderness and is ancestral hunting lands for the Inupiaq who subsist off the land and sea.
KEA has responsibility to provide reliable power to the village, and has been at the forefront of finding ways to offset their diesel consumption, first as a regional leader with integrating wind with the diesels, to the first to integrate battery energy storage (BESS-several chemistries), to more recently installing solar / PV.
Currently, we have 11 MW of diesel engines, 530kW PV, two 1 MW wind turbines, and a 1 MW/1 MWh Li-Ion BESS integrated with the diesels, offsetting on average 20-30% of their diesel usage. The BESS is used primarily for renewables grid firming and frequency regulation. We plan to add more BESS and more wind/solar to get the renewable contribution to higher percentages. Besides the tremendous challenges of engineering and constructing at "the end of the world", the extreme weather that is experienced in the arctic (temperatures -20 below F with winds 20-25 mph) there is the significant challenge to maintain reliable, and stable electricity; our survival depends on it. Besides providing a dump load boiler to provide supplemental heat and hot water for the local medical clinic, KEA has taken a lightly loaded distribution feeder and turned it into a transmission line for renewable power generation.
We will discuss the challenges and lessons learned from the various solutions tried, what worked and what hasn't. We will discuss the future for the village and our goal to go 100% electric and clean with the addition of electric vehicles and snowmobiles.

Off-Grid Combined Heat and Power for Agriculture: A Case Study

Electric power demand for indoor agriculture often exceeds existing local utility capacity, and the process for upgrading utility service can be lengthy. Cultivators are increasingly turning to distributed power solutions to accelerate their operational timelines and improve energy efficiency in order to maximize their returns in growing but ultimately competitive markets. We present a case study in high-efficiency, off-grid cogeneration capable of meeting this growing demand. The 3.5MW Lab Energy Cogeneration and Central Utility Plant serves as the sole source of electric power and thermal energy for the Pennsylvania Options for Wellness medicinal cannabis cultivation and research facility. Fueled by liquified natural gas (LNG), Lab Energy operates independently of both the electric grid and gas pipeline. In addition to the four-unit cogeneration system, the facility includes two 660RT magnetic bearing water-cooled chillers, backup boilers, and pumping systems to supply hot and chilled water to the cultivation facility. The N+1 redundant system supplies 1800-2100kW, 7MMBTU/hour of heat, and 550RT of chilled water required for cultivation lighting, fertigation, processing, and climate control. We will discuss the challenges inherent in an off-grid installation, options for thermal integration of CHP with cultivation facility climate control systems, and the cost and efficiency advantages of CHP for large-scale cultivation.

Outage Challenges

Hydrogen: Safety is Step One

Hydrogen is becoming more widely viewed as the fuel of choice for medium and heavy-duty vehicles. However, hydrogen's promise is tempered by the public's concerns about its safety: only 12% of Americans believe that hydrogen is "very safe," and 92% of Americans say it's important to ensure safety standards are set before we begin expanding and scaling up hydrogen technologies. These concerns pose a major impediment to hydrogen becoming the clean, carbon-free fuel we need for the future. Demonstrating that there is a well-developed framework of hydrogen safety standards reduces this level of concern and fosters wider acceptance.

Hydrogen Fuels for Distributed Power Generation using Gas Engines

On the path to net zero, highly efficient CHP systems can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint in distributed energy systems. This presentation will provide an overview on different options to use hydrogen fuels in CHP systems while maintaining the flexibility and reliability of dispatchable gas engine-generators. Advances in engine technology and fuel flexibility will be showcased including the use of 100% H2. Global case studies will be presented highlighting operational power generation projects and best-practices for utilizing hydrogen in gas engines.

International and Hydrogen Challenges

Western Utility Reduces Algae with SUEZ's E.C.O.Film Non-Phosphorous Technology

Western Utility Reduces Algae with SUEZ's E.C.O.Film Non-Phosphorus Technology

Fresh water lakes have been facing increasing algae growth challenges due in part to industry discharging water with elevated levels of phosphorus to them and to the tributaries that feed these lakes. With a strong desire to protect the local waterways and be good stewards of the environment, a large western utility went above and beyond federal, state, and local regulations and took a proactive approach to eliminate phosphorus from certain operations.

This utility realized that one of their natural gas combined cycle power plants, capable of delivering in excess of 1,000 MW of power, used traditional chemical treatment programs as a way to prevent mild steel corrosion, scale and deposits in their cooling water system. Understanding that traditional chemical programs include phosphorus, the utility evaluated alternatives and ultimately selected SUEZ's E.C.O.Film technology to treat their cooling water system. E.C.O.Film is a novel technology that provides mild steel corrosion protection and mineral scale/deposit control without the use of phosphorus.

With the use of E.C.O.Film, it is estimated the power plant will eliminate 5,600 pounds per year of phosphorus from its discharge, which translates to a reduction of up to 2.8 million pounds of wet algae in the fresh water lake that it discharges into.

"Managing Fuel Energy Assets Today to Ensure Reliable Performance Tomorrow."

• Howard Chesneau, President, Fuel Quality Services Inc

As reported by EIA (Energy Information Agency), in 2020 approximately 70 billion gallons of Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) fuel was produced in the United States, moved to market through the fungible supply system, and sold. In 2020, the average price of ULSD in the United States was $2.55USD per gallon and this represents a total fuel energy cost in excess of $150,000,000,000.00 dollars. With the increases in the price per gallon for diesel fuel in 2021 and 2022, the total diesel fuel costs would be significantly greater.

The majority of this fuel-energy asset was purchased and consumed within 12 months for immediate use in applications such as on-road diesel driven vehicles, nonroad diesel driven equipment, marine and locomotive. However, a portion of this fuel-energy asset was purchased but not immediately consumed quietly finding its way into long-term storage across the United States poised for use sometime in the future.

This smaller but significantly more important volume of the national fuel pool typically goes unnoticed by the public because it is stored long term in concealed or hidden storage vessels for infrequent, seasonal, or emergency use. Whether for immediate storage (6-12 months) or long-term storage (12-60 months), purchasing and managing volumes of fuel that range from 100 to 100,000 barrels for an undefined period of time requires logistics, financing, and management processes to ensure this form of fuel energy will perform reliably when needed sometime in the future.

Since the advent of diesel fuel as the source of energy for many routine, nonroutine, and emergency systems, management processes have been developed and discussed on how to manage the diesel fuel long term, to extend product shelf life, and ensure reliable performance in the future when needed. Over the decades, these management processes have been modified, and continue to evolve as the raw materials, blendstocks, and additives used to make the final diesel fuel product change and improve.

This presentation will explore and discuss the various practices and practical economical options to protect this valuable asset today to ensure reliable performance tomorrow.

The Importance of Unlocking Siloed Data to Improve Shutdowns/Turnarounds/Outages

Title: The Importance of Unlocking Siloed Data to Improve Performance and Foster On-time, In-budget Shutdown, Turnaround, and Outage Execution

Many STOs (Shutdowns, Turnarounds, Outages) lack access to real-time data, preventing effective and accurate management. Field data is all too often stale, delayed, and inaccurate, and struggles to find its way back to the necessary systems of record because of lack of connectivity and sharing. Decision-makers are unable to get different data systems of record to talk to each other.

Data silos evolve due to various reasons, from data management strategies and company politics to siloed organizational structures, company culture, and technology. Their existence and consequent lack of data sharing means that any STO management team only has access to a small part of the total picture. Trying to plan and execute an STO with such isolated data is like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle in the dark, with nothing but a flashlight! The chance of success is very limited.

This presentation will discuss these issues and more. We will illustrate how STO success is dependent on unlocking existing siloed systems, since the communication and interconnection between the information silos of multiple systems are essential to:
• Ensure that all departments work collectively and collaboratively on accurate information
• Improve the accuracy and integrity of KPIs
• Compare the high velocity of data sets quickly
• Provide management with complete, correlated data that delivers insights, supports accurate and informed decision-making, and enables managers to stay ahead of their events.

Flue Gas Oxidation Catalyst: An Innovative O&M Sensor for Gas Turbines

• William Hizny, Application Engineer, BASF Corp

Sustainable gas turbine power generation during the unprecedented energy transition demands insightful Operations & Maintenance (O&M) management that leverages all available operational data. A flue gas oxidation catalyst installed downstream of the gas turbine to control air toxics also can serve as an effective and innovative O&M sensor. By coupling historical data digitization with catalyst expertise in the field application, BASF has developed advanced machine learning techniques that decipher the O&M needs sensed by the flue gas oxidation catalyst.

Located right after the upstream power generation system, flue gas oxidation catalyst senses and treats all the exhaust gas and any foreign species that may issue from the power generation source. As such, proper and regular test and analysis of flue gas oxidation catalyst samples can unveil the impact of operation patterns and changes to those patterns. Using the digital tools of cohort comparison and trend analysis, the flue gas catalyst as O&M sensor meets the needs of the operator by: (1) identifying site-specific O&M tasks for potential operational improvement, (2) determining the effectiveness of implemented O&M practices and (3) recommending capital measures supported from an O&M perspective. The contributions from realizing this new O&M sensor function of the catalyst are illustrated by three field application case studies: (1) the facilitation of a smooth coal-to-gas fuel conversion of an established power plant, (2) urgent troubleshooting for a flexible power generation system, (3) the extension of an asset useful life by specific in-operation maintenance. These examples illustrate the innovative value to be found in dual-purpose use of existing plant assets to address O&M challenges arising from the ongoing energy transition.

Carbon Capture as Part of the Energy Transition

With new legislation and financial incentives for GHG reductions developing across the world, as well as corporate sustainability and net-zero goals, there is an increasing focus on methods to decarbonize the power sector and beyond. This presentation will focus on the role CO2 capture can play as a key decarbonization pathway in the transition to a net-zero carbon electricity sector. This presentation will discuss the current state of development of CO2 capture technologies, including direct air capture, and infrastructure and the ways in which CO2 capture can be applied to the to address near-term and long-term decarbonization goals. Market drivers, incentives, and regulations which would impact the deployment of CO2 capture technologies will be discussed. This presentation will also discuss key considerations that could impact the economics and feasibility of implementing these projects.

Integration of CO2 Capture in Natural Gas Combined Cycles

International climate and energy goals as set by the 2015 Paris Agreement and the 2018 IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C will require a wide range of solutions to ultimately achieve net zero emissions. One of the key solutions on this pathway in both the power generation and industrial sectors will be carbon capture and storage (CCS). Implementation of CCS in the power sector to date has been slow, with only two commercial installations in operation in North America, of which both are installed at coal-fired power plants. Yet in almost all net zero scenarios, CCS will eventually be needed at all fossil-fired power plants, including natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) facilities.

There are three main processes currently being considered for CCS: post-combustion capture, pre-combustion capture, and oxyfuel combustion capture. This paper focuses on post-combustion and pre-combustion capture in combined cycles utilizing commercially available chemical absorption technology. The area of emphasis for this study is the comparison of pre-combustion versus post-combustion CO2 capture arrangements. Particular attention is paid to the integration of the thermal energy supplied to the CO2 capture system and gas reforming system with the combined cycle power plant.

A reference F-class gas turbine 1x1 combined cycle power plant is modeled without CCS. Pre-combustion and post-combustion CCS variants are then created and modeled, and the resulting net electric power and cycle efficiencies are compared. A high level cost comparison is also included. All performance modeling and the majority of cost estimating is accomplished with the commercially available ThermoflowTM suite of thermal power plant modeling software.

Remote Communities Projects