Plant Management Institute

7 Energy Trends

Aero-Derivative Technology Supports Renewable Growth

Around the world, power producers are under pressure to deliver reliable, affordable, decarbonized electricity 24/7/365. On-demand power based on aero-derivative technology helps producers meet these competing goals. Rapidly expanding renewable energy sources provide zero-carbon generation, but wind and sun vary the output. Renewable technologies are also more susceptible to damage from severe weather events such as hurricanes and snow/ice storms that can disrupt existing infrastructure, resulting in significant issues with anticipated reserve margins. This changing generation mix from larger central plants to more distributed and intermittent power sources is making the grid less resilient. As these issues become more pressing, the need is increasing for fast response, fuel flexible, on-demand energy systems. We will discuss these reliability issues being seen in North America, impacts to anticipated reserve margins, expected power swings based on current renewable projections, and how flexible, dispatchable power generation with aero-derivative gas turbine technology fits this need to maintain a balanced and reliable electrical grid.

Uncovering the Hidden Value of Reciprocating Engines in Today's Energy Markets

Research suggests that electric utilities could be missing out on millions of dollars in value for their customers by using traditional grid modeling techniques. Traditional power system models rely on an hourly view of the world to optimize their decisions. However, as increasing amounts of variable renewable energy resources are rapidly being deployed, a more granular modeling lens is required to accurately capture the real-time dynamics of the grid. Moreover, the growing interplay between weather and the supply and demand for electricity has emphasized the need for flexible, dispatchable capacity. With renewable generation's highly variable output and weather dependency, system operators will continue to have difficulty in predicting demand and producing day-ahead hourly pricing signals through their markets. To address these challenges, flexible, dispatchable capacity resources have become an important component of the electricity system, providing grid operators with the ability to quickly adjust supply to meet changing demand conditions. As a result, assessing the market value potential of these flexible capacity resources has become increasingly important in preparing business or capital asset plans as part of overall resource planning.

This study presents an analysis of the market value potential of reciprocating internal combustion engines (RICE) using day-ahead and real-time revenue streams with a key distinction of using 5-minute data to highlight the value arising from volatility within sub-hourly timeframes, which is otherwise hidden in traditional hourly planning models. Using a comprehensive historical dataset, this study shows the unrealized and growing potential of flexible, dispatchable resources like RICE in MISO, ERCOT, and SPP, including their ability to provide firm capacity, ramping, and grid balancing services. The results demonstrate that RICE units have significant market value, particularly in real-time markets, due to their flexibility and responsiveness. By leveraging the potential of RICE units, load serving entities can enhance their revenue streams, improve their grid reliability, and better serve their customers.

Flexible Operation Impacts on Combined Cycle HRSGs and Steam Turbines

Flexible operation at combined cycle power plants is a mainstay of the changing energy landscape. Driven by the intermittent production of renewable resources as well as efforts to match peak power production to demand, increased load cycling is required for more responsive generating assets such as simple cycle and combined cycle power plants. While simple and combined cycle power plants have inherent operations flexibility, increased cycling often results in heat rate degradation, higher operations and maintenance risk, decreased responsiveness to market demands, and poor emissions performance. All combined cycle power plant components are impacted by greater numbers of starts and stops, load changes, and ramp rate. As the result of a broad yet detailed study of a fleet of combined cycle power plants, conducted in conjunction with EPRI and several utilities, we have uncovered the components and failure modes that represent great risk to reliable operation of combined cycle power plants. These include leaking valves, flow-accelerated corrosion, excessive spray flow and other steam and water-side factors. Nowhere is this more evident than in the heat recovery steam generator and the steam turbine. This presentation will provide the audience with not only the critical components most likely to be impacted by increased cycling, but will also discuss the analysis process and how this can directly benefit major operations and capital decisions for simple cycle and combined cycle plant owners and operators.

Hydrogen Safety & Operability

Hydrogen is seen across the world as the key to decarbonizing power and heat generation processes. The energy transition for fuels feeding gas turbines, internal combustion engines, process heaters, and boilers will require the combustion of carbon free fuels. Hydrogen is seen as the fuel of choice. Air Products and Chemicals is the world leader in hydrogen generation and has been for over 30 years. The Air Products team would like the opportunity to share a detailed breakdown on how it uses established safety techniques to set processes up for success. Also, the industrial gas industry has already set many standards around safe and efficient hydrogen generation, transport, and storage. These operability guidelines are important to understand so that optimal supply plans for the energy transition can be developed and installed using established techniques and specifications. Air Products would like the opportunity to review these established processes and principals to expedite the installation of these energy transition processes.

Reduction of cathodic stress reactions and protection of pipeline systems.

This session will discuss the practical and safe application of resilient cathodic protection strategies for hydrogen transport pipeline systems.
Existing oil and gas pipeline infrastructure must be carefully examined to ensure suitability for transportation of Hydrogen and avoid catastrophic mechanical failure caused by Hydrogen Embrittlement (HE) of the steel components in contact with the product.
While maintaining higher transport temperatures above 150Celsius does increase steel immunity from HE, this is not always feasible.
Lower room temperature environments are more likely and directly in the range of most steel alloys point of maximum HE susceptibility.
The reduction of mechanical stress is a significant and more practical tactic to reduce HE effects.
Cathodic protection (CP) of the pipeline system will prevent mechanical degradation of the metal pipe wall by driving a reverse DC voltage against the natural anode-cathode reduction electrical reaction of metals in soil.
The CP system will improve mechanical stability of the pipe wall thereby reducing the threat and risk of HE failure.
The CP system must include means of withstanding AC power coupling and lightning surge events for long term resilience.
All sealing flange joints must include voltage protection devices to prevent dielectric failure of the seal and static voltage mitigation to eliminate any ignition.
Clear illustrations and schematics of Hydrogen transport systems will be incorporated with audience interactive poling questions to re-enforce the learning objectives of this session.

Hydrogen Leakage with Alternative Designs, Materials, and Facing Materials

The hydrogen industry has been identified as a key decarbonization technology with its demand projected to grow five-fold, which can be seen by the influx of capital investment from the United States and globally. Several new projects are breaking ground with the goal of producing 50 million metric tons/year by 2050 in the United States and 500 million metric tons/year globally.
Currently, for several of the standards that are being used, such as ASME B31.12-2019 [1] (Hydrogen Piping and Pipelines), a majority of the sealing components call for standard gaskets from ASME B16.20 [2] and ASME B16.21 [3]. However, much is still relatively unknown regarding the potential leak rates of these standard gaskets or if the use poses any potential risks. In order to support the industry, we have performed EN 13555 [4] leak testing using 100% hydrogen across several different gaskets: ASME B16.20 [2] spiral wound, grooved metal gaskets, and alternate geometries and constructions, ASME B16.21 [3] rings with different materials including expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE), nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR), and fluoroelastomer (FKM).
From what was observed, the permeability of hydrogen from the gaskets evaluated varies based on several different factors such as: sealing design, material, and facing material, some of which has a greater effect on creating a seal. This paper will discuss in depth the results of these gaskets tested with hydrogen and additionally make correlations to its sealability using helium.

Net Zero Goals? Workforce Organization Is Key

Many utilities today have ambitious targets for net zero emissions or carbon neutrality. These same organizations understand that there are a variety of different aspects required to meet these lofty goals, but they often overlook how organization of the workforce can directly impact the success of meeting targets. This presentation will include a case study from Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL), Michigan's largest municipal utility which serves 100,000 electric customers and 58,000 water customers. In 2022 BWL reorganized its workforce and created a unique department of Carbon Neutrality Programs that brings all aspects of planning for the utility's carbon neutrality goal under one team. This group of employees has responsibility for the management and expansion of customer facing programs supporting carbon reduction, while also directing internal actions such as greenhouse gas inventories and internal electrification. By taking the additional step of having Carbon Neutrality Programs report directly to Strategic Planning instead of the more traditional approach of an Environmental Compliance or Operations function, BWL has ensured that its long term strategy is aligned with decarbonization efforts, while providing employees in the organization the direct interaction and visibility they they need to be successful in the long term. This presentation will explore both the direct organizational structure implemented at BWL, but also how this unique department interacts and creates connections with other internal departments in the company, as well as external stakeholder groups, in order to provide communication, education and alignment between projects and programs. Attendees to this session/topic will gain valuable insights on how they can organize their own workforce, either directly or indirectly, in order to ensure net zero and carbon neutrality goals are implemented while aligning with other key strategies and goals of the organization.

Power Plant Human Performance

Utilities continue to seek ways to improve human performance in plant operations and maintenance through the use of human error reduction tools. While this is a valid approach, it only will address the minor amount of individual end user human error while the larger contributor to plant performance errors is found in the utility's latent organizational weaknesses. Recognizing and correcting these performance errors will provide utilities substantially more success in human error reduction than focusing only on the individual. This session will discuss many of these observed in the industry through EPRI's plant assessments.

PEM Electrolyzer Factory Update

Industrial sectors such as fertilizer and steel need new ways to reliably replace fossil resources at costs that work. The machines we will produce at our new factory in Devens will have a transformational impact by enabling ultra-low-cost green hydrogen at an industrial scale

Green Hydrogen Production Powered by Offshore Wind and Ocean Energy

The presentation focuses on hydrogen and oxygen production powered by offshore wind and ocean energy. Electrolysis is a self-pressurizing process. Pressure-balanced electrolysis, cold water, and hydrostatic pressure at the seafloor are leveraged for cooling and first-stage gas compression without a mechanical compressor. Low capex commodity materials, including polyethylene, are used for electrolyzer construction. The electrolyzers are failsafe with respect to subfreezing weather during periods of unscheduled power downtime because water at the seafloor never freezes. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers require high purity deionized water that freezes at zero degrees Celsius. When fastened to wind turbine platforms above the splash zone, as currently proposed, they can be exposed to subfreezing temperatures. During subfreezing periods of shut down PEM electrolyzers must have backup power to maintain operation of essential systems and to avoid freezing. The proposed electrolyzers are robust, do not circulate electrolyte and do not require scheduled maintenance. Due to the electrical conductivity of seawater, they are shielded from lighting strikes and electromagnetic pulse events (EMP). They are also shielded from falling ice, ice floe impacts, hurricanes, and the destructive power of high waves. Subsea electrolysis systems do not need lift pumps to bring water out of the ocean and transport it to elevated decks that are positioned above the ocean's splash zone. Positioning the electrolysis system on a deck above the splash zone raises the center of gravity, requiring the ballasting system and substructure dimensions to be modified to ensure the turbine remains stable. Codes and regulations for offshore wind turbines will need to be rewritten to accommodate the new inertial, aerodynamic, and hydrodynamic forces caused by platform mounting. The proposed electrolyzers, anchored at the seafloor, are 100% compatible add-ons for all existing and future offshore wind farms.

Real-World Hydrogen Fuel Testing

As our industry works towards a 100% renewable energy future, the exploration of hydrogen as a fuel has taken the energy sector by storm. In October 2022, Wärtsilä in collaboration with WEC Energy Group, EPRI and Burns & McDonnell completed real-world hydrogen blending tests in engines providing power to the grid. The tests were completed at WEC Energy Group's 55 MW A.J. Mihm power plant in Michigan, using an unmodified 18 MW Wärtsilä 50SG engine. Throughout the testing period, the Wärtsilä engine continued to supply power to the grid. This is the largest internal combustion engine ever to operate continuously on a hydrogen fuel blend. The results were in line with all expectations, and the full report with details will be published early in 2023.
Wärtsilä is actively carrying out the engine tests with 100 % hydrogen fuel at the company's engine laboratory in Vaasa, Finland. Results thus far have been encouraging, and the company expects to have an engine and power plant concept for operating with pure hydrogen available by 2025

Evaluating the Reliability Benefits of Battery Storage on Distribution Systems

A variety of financial benefits are commonly attributed to battery energy storage system ('BESS') deployments. These benefits include peak demand reduction and a variety of transmission considerations involving rapid 'spinning reserves', congestion costs, voltage stability, frequency regulation, and reactive power support. Tangible financial benefits may depend on available BESS size, capacity, and location on transmission networks and BESS deployments may only be economically justified at certain locations.
Similar to transmission, there are benefits associated with BESS deployments on distribution systems. Many utilities have or are planning to deploy fault location, isolation, and service restoration ('FLISR') technology to improve distribution reliability as part of their grid modernization program. FLISR improves reliability by detecting faults and automatically switching and reconfiguring interconnected feeders to restore service to un-faulted sections and minimize outages to the fewest number of customers practical. After repairs are completed the affected feeders can be switched back to their normal operating configuration. However, FLISR is dependent on the available back feed capacity of feeders, substation transformers, line equipment, and other factors. BESS deployments are emerging as another option to improve distribution reliability and resilience especially in circumstances where capacity is limited, and conventional upgrades are costly or require years to complete.
This presentation will explore how the methodology developed by Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory to monetize the benefits of improved distribution reliability may be leveraged to evaluate BESS deployments. Also, this presentation will illustrate how a business case is used to justify BESS deployments and evaluate if the monetized benefits of improved reliability achievable with a BESS deployment exceeds anticipated BESS life cycle costs based on data from a confidential utility client. Finally, this presentation will illustrate how the business case can be expanded to include alternative capacity investments and benefits previously described in this abstract.

Challenges and Considerations of Implementing Carbon Capture at Power Facilities

Climate change and decarbonization efforts continues to be an important focus for countries, businesses, and people. The United States has set ambitions of net-zero greenhouse gases emissions by no later than 2050. As part of this effort, the implementation of carbon dioxide (CO2) capture systems at point sources will be essential to help reduce CO2 cost-effectively. These systems are complex, energy intensive, and the installation of these systems is unique for each facility. Facilities must understand the requirements of these systems and evaluate the current and future availability of resources that will be required by these systems and the subsequent impact on the existing facility.

The power generation, transportation, and industrial sectors represent the three largest sources of anthropogenic CO2 in the US and the world. Power generation facilities are a specific focus for CO2 capture as many of these facilities produce CO2 as part of the process, and complete decarbonization cannot be achieved through fuel switching alone. This presentation will focus on the unique challenges and decisions that power generation facilities face when evaluating the feasibility of carbon capture. This presentation will explore the variability of CO2 emissions from each power generation facility including coal and natural gas, and the subsequent impact on implementing carbon capture systems. Consideration of utility availability and requirements, environmental regulations, and carbon capture technologies will be included as part of the evaluation with specific examples used to outline the decisions facilities are faced with.

Solar Field over Coal Ash Pond

Supporting the deployment of renewables with alternative energy storage

As more renewable energy resources connect to the grid, storing intermittently supplied energy becomes increasingly valuable and can ensure the stability and safety of power systems. Both US and European governments have recently acted to accelerate the commercialization and deployment of long-duration energy storage technologies (LDES) through the development of public-private partnerships and direct government support. Currently, most energy storage systems use lithium-ion batteries. However, problems with flammability, limited global supplies of key battery materials, supply chain bottlenecks, and high costs drive the push for low-cost, high performance, alternative energy storage solutions.

In response to the issues centered around lithium-ion, companies are developing low-cost non-lithium-based energy storage technologies made with off-the-shelf components that are commercially ready and scalable. These solutions are necessary to meet the demands of utilities and energy providers to accelerate the deployment of renewables while boosting grid resilience and reliability.

Claudio Spadacini can discuss how these non-lithium ion battery technologies, including Energy Dome's CO2 Battery, are faster, cheaper and easier to build than lithium-ion battery storage solutions. For reference, the CO2 Battery uses readily available carbon dioxide and off-the-shelf components to provide 4 to 20 hours of flexible storage for half the cost of lithium-ion batteries without the risk of fires and explosions.

Claudio can provide project implementation best practices and lessons learned through an overview of Energy Dome's 2.5 MW/4 MWh commercial demonstration project in Sardinia, Italy. He can also share updates since the company signed an MoU with wind power pioneer Ørsted to bring the CO2 Battery to Ørsted's offshore wind sites in Europe.

Technology-Driven Quality Assurance: Plant testing with Hardware in the Loop

As the penetration of inverter-based resources (IBRs) on the electric grid increases and clean energy plans expand, the reliability of IBR control systems is critical to maintaining overall system reliability. Current power plant controller (PPC) testing procedures are insufficient to fully characterize plant response during grid disturbances such as low-voltage ride-through (LVRT) and high-voltage ride-through (HVRT) events.

In ERCOT's well-documented Odessa Disturbance (May 2021), for example, more than 1 GW of solar plant output was reduced due to a three-cycle fault, with the affected resources spread across a large geographic area up to 200 miles away. This event highlighted a significant gap in high-fidelity plant and controller testing.

Hardware in the Loop (HIL) testing, or real-time simulation to verify the stability, operation, and fault tolerance of large-scale grid resources, is currently required in the US market for inverter control but not for plant control. Implementing HIL testing for PPCs at solar PV plants and other IBRs could enable better visibility into plant response during events that cannot be replicated during the typical commissioning process. HIL testing also allows PPC tuning in advance of onsite commissioning activities, reducing the overall commissioning timeline for the plant. Additionally, HIL testing enables testing of various Short Circuit Ratios (SCRs), which provides visibility into plant behavior under various fault scenarios and future load and generation scenarios. Implementing HIL testing as a standard approach for renewable plants would increase plant reliability during grid disturbances, improve the visibility of controller quality, and streamline the onsite commissioning and ISO testing process.

Using higher fidelity edge data to improve operations and customer experience

Data is important. The power industry knows it. Utilities themselves know it. A recent survey by Micatu and Zpryme indicates that 20% of the responding utilities would like to have data play a larger day-to-day role to drive innovation and improve the customer experience.

But many utilities don't have the ability to harvest and analyze the information. Integration and a lack of personnel available to interpret the data pose significant challenges for data collection, management and analysis as new systems come online.

Optical sensors can collect more data, more accurately at the front end of the data collection process, with a much higher fidelity than anything else on the market. Combined with advanced utility software can instantaneously turn bits and bytes of information into actionable data.

This presentation by Micatu and Camus Energy will follow a case study of a U.S. utility to discuss the importance of data across each stage of operations - from how it's collected on the front end to how utilities are already using it. The presentation will provide a clear overview of not only the importance of high-fidelity data, but the specifics of how it can improve operations for utilities across the country.

HALO Hub