As the world’s No.1 gas importer, Japan has launched a $10 billion financing initiative in a bid to play a leading role in the development of infrastructure – notably small-scale regasification plants and power stations – across Southeast Asia. Launching the initiative at an industry conference in Tokyo today, trade and industry minister Hiroshige Seko is combining diplomacy with a soft-sales approach for Japanese technology.
Electrical power distribution relies on trouble-free interaction between hardware and software, using systematic data management for networked production processes. To that end, Siemens will be showcasing the open cloud-based IoT operating system MindSphere at the "SPS IPC Drives" 2017 trade show.
The Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made a political U-turn on energy, dismissing earlier instated 'clean energy targets' in favour of stipulating guarantees for reliable power supply and emissions reductions as the two new pillars of his new policy. Utilities will henceforth be obliged to deliver electricity at times of peak demand.
Glow Energy, listed on the stock exchange of Thailand, has awarded a long term service agreement (LTSA) to Ansaldo Energia for their Glow Energy Phase 5 cogeneration unit. Located some 200km southeast of Bangkok, the plant generates 328MW of electricity plus upwards of 160 tons/hour of steam.
Coupled simulations of aerodynamic and heat transfer can minimize efforts for developing both stationary gas turbines and aero engines. Conjugate heat transfer (CHT) calculations cut costs. According to Rene Braun, technical manager at B&B-AGEMA, “Increasing firing temperatures in new gas turbines and upgrades of existing machine concepts, while considering cooling efficiencies, requires highly complex simulation models and accurate solutions. Thus, the quality of numerical results is essential.”
China’s Huaneng Power International, a listed power producer with controlled generation capacity of 102.5 GW, has seen rapid growth both at home and abroad. Over the first three quarters of this year, Huaneng Power recorded a 26.52% growth in output of its power plants within China, with total electricity sold amounting to 294.271 billion kWh.
Profit margins for burning coal and natural gas for power generation – dark & spark spreads – have both declined during the first half of this year. Still, comparing both spreads, according to the EIA analysts, “appear to indicate that natural gas-fired units have been more profitable than coal-fired units recently,” notably at the PJM Western hub.
Dubai Hills Estate, a joint venture between Emaar Properties and Meraas Holding, have awarded a $45 million contract to ABB for a substation that helps feed electricity to a new integrated lifestyle project in the city. Dubai consumes over 37,000 GWh of electricity per annum – a third of which by the residential sector.
Low global LNG prices have improved the economics in China to generate electricity from natural gas instead of coal, and the subsequent surge in imports also increased the number of landed cargoes from the United States. According to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, the worth of US LNG exports in Jan-July 2017 exceeded $139 million, already 2% more than the 2016 total.
Electrifying remote Indonesian islands through ships, or barges, that generated electricity using LNG, is at the centre of a research plan supported by the governments of Indonesia and Japan. Tokyo hopes to export the new technology to other island nations in Asia Pacific.
Intermittency issues of wind and solar power supply are feared to jeopardize the stability of the U.S. power grid. To remedy this issue scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an “air-breathing” battery storage that, at the cheapest, run about $100/kWh and functions only in certain locations.
Dongfang Electric International, a Chinese engineering contractor, has signed a framework contract with Wärtsilä for the latter to supply the generating equipment for three new power plant projects in Angola. The plants are being built on a fast-track basis and are due to start operation in the third quarter of 2018.
Luminant, a subsidiary of the U.S. power company Vistra Energy, has decided to shut down two coal power plants in Texas, which together with an earlier announced closure, will remove more than 4,200MW of coal generating capacity from the market. The operational end for these units comes irrespective of last week’s pledges EPA administrator Scott Pruitt to repeal the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP), in a bid to ease pressure on the coal industry.
Regardless of the implementation of the Clean Power Plan, NRG and several other large U.S. power generators have already come forward with their own commitments to reduce carbon emissions. Over the past two years, NRG managed to reduce its absolute GHG emissions by 35%, putting it well on track to reach its 50% reduction goal by 2030.
The Brazilian utility Centrais Elétricas do Pará (CELPA) has contracted Siemens to design and install twelve microgrids at twelve distributed power stations across the state in order to remotely operate these assets via a central control center in Belém. Each distribute generator will be monitored as a self-contained island network, with the overall monitoring system scheduled to go into service at the beginning of 2018.
News in Brief
Pemex orders GE’s TM2500 for refinery
Oct 19 – While recovery efforts continue in Mexico after the recent earthquake, GE Power and its partner APR Energy will supply Pemex with TM2500 mobile power plant solutions for refinery some 5km northeast of the city of Salina Cruz. Operations of the refinery will benefit from nearly 70 MW of urgent power generation as regular supply via the national grid is being restored.
Surging energy use in India’s buildings
Oct 18 – India is forecast to see the fastest growth in building energy consumption through 2040. In the IEO2017 Reference case, delivered energy consumption for residential and commercial buildings in India is expected to increase by an average of 2.7% per year between 2015 and 2040, more than twice the global average increase.
Dong to remotely operate UK peaking plants
Oct 17 – Denmark’s Dong Energy has agreed with GAM Capital and its project development arm in the UK, Gas Power Developments, to manage the remote control and market optimization of three 6 MW gas power stations. The three gas peaking plants are Prestige House, Newhouse and Clay Flatts, located in Lancashire and Cumbria.
'Generation Energy' debate launched in Canada
Oct 16 – ‘Generation Energy’ has been kickstarted at a forum in Winnipag as a society-wide debate on the pathways to an affordable, low-carbon energy future for Canada. The share of renewables in Canada’s power mix exceeded 65% last year, with 90% of the total derived from hydropower. Prior to the event, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr met bilaterally with IEA head Dr Fatih Birol to provide input to Canada’s Presidency of the G7 in 2018.
MHPS starts manufacturing turbines in Dammam
Oct 13 – MHPS Saudi Arabia, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, has opened its new Turbine Rotor Repair Facility in Dammam today. The Japanese manufacturer announced plans to plans to manufacture its most advanced gas turbines in the Saudi kingdom, and use the new facility to service compressors and turbines used in petroleum and chemical plants.
Azura-Edo IPP to startup 8 months early
Oct 12 – Azura Power Holdings has announced that its 450 MW Auzura-Edo Independent Power Project (IPP) will be ready to start operations eight months ahead of schedule. First fire is planned in December this year, for commissioning to be finalised for a start-up in May 2018.
Evaluating GT owners take on dry air injection
Oct 11 – Sargent & Lundy has been hired by gas turbine (GT) owners to analyze the impact of Turbophase dry air injection system at different site conditions. Turbophase installed on multiple gas turbine frames over the past years, clocking up thousands of run-time hours.
Gas turbine market tops $24bn by 2022
Oct 10 – The global market for gas turbine is growing at an annual rate of 5.3% to reach $24.12 billion by 2020, according to htfmarketreport. Increasing demand distributed power generation, technology advancement, and more stringent regulations on carbon emissions are fuelling the market growth.
Trump nominates pro-coal lawyer as EPA deputy
Oct 9 – US President Donald Trump has nominated Andrew R. Wheeler, a lawyer whose clients include the coal mining firm Murry Energy, as the deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Wheeler opposes Obama’s Clean Power Plan and supported the US coal industry’s opposition to the Paris Climate Agreement.
Tokyo Engineering to finish new Azeri CCGT by May 2018
Oct 6 – Japan’s Tokyo Engineering Corp is building a new combined-cycle gas power unit at the Shimal power plant in Baku. The 409-MW unit is schedule to start full commercial operation in May 2018. Project costs, estimated to exceed $330 million, are partly covered by a $275 million loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).
Spain’s gas demand up 13% in September
Oct 5 – Demand for natural gas in Spain has increased by 13% to 26,153 GWh in September, the highest level in the past five years. Gas-burn in the power sector was up 44% month-on-month, reaching 7,085 GWh.
Capstone to deliver C1000s to Italy
Oct 4 – Capstone Turbine Corp has received an order for a C1000 Signature Series microturbine to provide combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP) for a large cured meat company in Veneto, Italy. IBT Group, Capstone’s Italian distributor, secured the order for the plant, which is due to be commissioned in early 2018.
Marubeni invests in biomass co-fired plant
Oct 3 – Marubeni Thermal Power has signed a shareholder agreement with Tokuyama and Tokyo Century Corp to invest in the latter’s the construction and operation of a biomass co-firing power project in Shunan City. Preparation for construction works are getting underway this month, for a start of commercial operation in 2022.
Puerto Rico powered by fuel oil in the wake of Hurricane Maria
Oct 2 – Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) is busy trying to restart power plants as well as transmission and distribution lines after Hurricane Maria hit the island earlier this month. In the absence of firm natural gas supply, PREA turned to Puma Energy to purchase fuel oil for emergency power generators.
Wärtsilä helps boost offgrid power in India
Sept 29 – Wärtsilä’s Indian office is supporting Arkay Energy (Rameswarm) to boost electrical output and productivity of its 150 MW baseload power plant in Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, in southern India. An O&M deal for the plant's 16 Wärtsilä 34SG engines was renewed in June 2017 for another five years.
GE builds Turkey’s largest generator transformer at Gebze
Sept 28 – TERNA, the construction arm of GEK TERNA Group, has asked GE to manufacture what will become the Turkey’s largest generator transformer. The 820 MVA is being built in Gebze and scheduled for completion in mid-2018, when it will be installed at the Ptolemais power plant in Greece.
PowerLink IP launched
Sept 27 – Siemens has launched PowerLink IP, a power line carrier (PLC) for digital high-voltage substations. It uses the high-voltage lines between the substations as a channel by overlaying a modulated carrier frequency on the frequency of the transmission voltage in the overhead lines.
