Sky Global's Power One peaking plant, run by six Jenbacher gas engines, has helped San Bernard Cooperative (SBEC) reestablish grid stability during a historic cold freeze in February. The engines ran in grid parallel mode, supplying localised power for several hours during a prolonged grid outage.
Carmakers in Germany cash in on the global shift to e-mobility. Though the production of battery cells is dominated by businesses in South Korea, Japan and China, German companies have caught up and reached a leading position on technologies like cell chemistry, cooling and control systems for car batteries and energy storage.
Electricity consumption in the United States is rebounding as the economy and private households are starting to get to grips with the pandemic. Government analysts expect US electricity use will rise by 2.1% in 2021 – driven by demand from industry – after having plunged 3.8% in 2020.
Firmer prices at Henry Hub have reduced the gas use for power generation in the United States. Gas-burn is forecast to fall 0.4%, compared to 2020 levels, lowering overall gas consumption in 2021 to 82.9 Bcf per day. Meanwhile, US LNG exports are picking up as Asian economies recover.
Supercomputers at King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia will be cushioned by 12 mtu Kinetic PowerPacks. The systems, equipped with rotating energy accumulators, will provide the data center with uninterruptible power, acting as an “energy backbone.”
Marubeni and Tokyo Gas have sealed an agreement for Phase-1 development of an industrial park Vietnam’s Quang Ninh Province that will include an LNG regas terminal and integrated power plant. Situated some 200km from Hanoi, the project will cost around 200 billion yen ($1.92 billion) and the LNG-fuelled power station will have a capacity of 1,500 MW.
The Finish technology group Wärtsilä has signed an optimised maintenance agreement for three power plants operated by Paras Energy, a privately-owned Nigerian utility. Driven by 34SG gas-fuelled engines, the three plants have a combined electricity output of 132 MW.
AD Power Plants of Northern Macedonia (AD ESM) has agreed to take a 25% stake in Alexandroupolis Electricity Production, the special purpose vehicle set up to finance, build, own and operate a power plant in northern Greece. The project, currently fully owned by DAMCO Energy, will have a capacity of 662 MW initially and is scheduled to start operation in 2023.
German gas TSOs are carrying out substantial infrastructure investments to convert the country’s gas supply system from low calorific gas (L-gas) to high calorific gas (H-gas). Almost one million appliances, mostly in western Germany, have already been switched with the aim to finish works by 2030.
RWE Renewables has contracted Wärtsilä to supply a 40-MW/80-MWh DC-coupled solar plus storage system to the Hickory Park Solar project in Georgia, US. The hybrid system will enable RWE to steadily dispatch and sell 200 MW of electricity from the solar PV units to Georgia Power Company, the local utility.
Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power has secured $750 million in senior debt to develop the Sirdarya combined-cycle power plant in Uzbekistan. Built at a cost of $1.2 billion, the 1,500 MW Sirdarya CCGT is designed to meet 15% of the country’s electricity needs and will account for 8% installed capacity.
Mitsubishi Power has inaugurated its M701JAC gas turbine at a combined-cycle power plant in Thailand. The turbine powers one of eight CCGT units at two equally sized plants with a combined output of 3,500 MW, built by Gulf Energy Development and Mitsui & Co.