Power group Ipsa has postponed the closure of a sale agreement for its remaining two Siemens Westinghouse W701 DU gas turbines until the end of this month, after the prospective buyer – a Malaysian power development company – walked away from an $31-million offer.
Unless electricity market in India are deregulated and prices become competitive, operators will be hard pressed to make a profit from gas-fired power plants assets when considering the higher costs for imported LNG.
The New York State Public Service Commission has given the green light to Cricket Valley Energy Center LLC, an affiliate of Advanced Power, to build a proposed 1,000 MW power plant in Dutchess County.
The LNG offtake of Japanese utilities rose 2.5 percent year-on-year in January to 5.32 million tonnes, with 5.16MT of the total used a fuel to generate power.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has been commissioned to install 4 sets of a 700 MW class supercritical pressure steam turbine, generators and boiler components at a large-scale oil-fired power plant (2,800 MW) to be built by Saudi Electric Company (SEC).
Keeping existing fossil capacity in the market will "prove to be difficult" and many European utilities "will abstain from investing" in new plants without capacity mechanisms as long as the current market situation with low electricity demand, low CO2 prices and relatively high gas prices persists, forecasts Jørgen Kildahl, member of the Board of Management at E.ON SE.
The Ratnagiri Gas & Power Pvt Ltd (RGPPL) has resumed generation this morning and is currently generating 250 MW against its total capacity of 1,967 MW, a company spokesman confirmed to Gas to Power Journal. The plant was shut down in the morning hours of February 7 due to non-availability of gas supply.
Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom is jeopardising the future commercial viability of gas-fired power generation in Europe by insisting on the principle of oil indexation, say Jonathan Stern and Howard Rogers, leading academics at the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies (OIES).
Enhanced energy efficiency, putting a realistic price on carbon emissions and greater research and development of low-carbon energy production are what the International Energy Agency (IEA) singles out as 'imperatives' for producing electricity in a climate-constrained world.
A decision to re-start generation at the 1,967-megawatt Dabhol power plant will be taken later today. "We hope to restart with at least a pair of turbines," a Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private (RGPPL) spokesman told Gas to Power Journal.
The energy industry in Europe still has to come to grips with "substantial challenges" Vattenfall's CEO Øystein Løseth said today, after posting a record 7.3% increase in the group's electricity generation in 2012.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) and the Treasury have made available $150 million in Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits for clean energy and energy efficiency manufacturing projects. The gas industry, however, criticizes President's Obama's 'all-of-the-above approach' to American energy sources.
News in Brief
Denmark paves the way for Nord Stream 2
July 7– Denmark on late Monday gave the Nord Stream 2 consortium permission to utilize pipe-laying vessels with anchors in Danish waters, paving the way for the Gazprom-led consortium to complete the interconnector. Construction of the 1,230-kilometre pipeline is nearly complete, except for a final stretch of about 120-kilometers in Danish waters. The project was halted in December when the Swiss-Dutch pipe-laying company Allseas suspended works over threats of U.S. sanctions.
EPRI tests early warning system
July 6– The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is conducting trial tests with multiple utilities across the United States of an early warning system. It can detect an off-gassing event as a precursor to thermal runaway up to 30 minutes prior to a cascading failure. This gives plant operators time to mitigate the problem or shut down the system.
KKR buys stake in First Gen
July 3 – Valorous Asia Holdings, owned by KKR investment funds, has bought a 11.9% stake in First Gen through a voluntary tender offer. First Gen, one of the Philippines’ largest independent power producers with 3,492 MW installed capacity, is owned by First Philippine Holdings which is controlled by the Lopez family. KKR’s acquisition of the First Gen stake is worth nearly $192.3 million.
Gazprom’s ‘BBB’ rating affirmed
July 2 – S&P Global Ratings, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have affirmed Gazprom's long-term credit ratings as part of their annual reviews. The ‘BBB’ ratings for Gazprom from S&P and Fitch are in line with the sovereign credit rating of the Russian Federation, while Moody's ‘Baa2’ rating is a notch higher.
MHIEC to refurbish WtE plant in Kushiro
July 1 – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Environmental & Chemical Engineering Co (MHIEC) has received an order from the Kushiro Wide-Area Federation to repair and improve the core equipment at the local Waste-to-Energy plant in Takayama. The WtE plant has a capacity of 240 tonnes per day (tpd). Renovation will increase the energy efficiency of the fluidized bed type gasification and ash melting furnace facility, reducing emissions by around 15% annually. Works are due completed in September 2023.
Nigeria: Only two of six power projects on target
June 30 – Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises has disclosed that only two out of six privatized power plants were delivered on target. Only Transcorp Power Ltd and Geregu Power Ltd out of the six privatised electricity generation companies (GENCOs) were said to have met their performance targets since taking over.
German investors prefer solar over wind
June 29 – Energy infrastructure investors are keen to build solar power projects in Germany, but shun wind parks. In the latest solar power auction, investors offered to build almost 450 MW of capacity – more than four times the 96 MW of volume on offer– with the average successful bid at 5.27 cents per kilowatt-hour (ct/kWh). The wind auction, in contrast, was undersubscribed: The German network agency (BNetzA) tendered around 826 MW, but successful bids only totalled 464 MW, at an average price of 6.14 ct/KWh.
MAN ventures into synthetic fuels
June 26 – MAN Energy Solutions has entered the hydrogen economy with the recent pro rata acquisition of H-TEC SYSTEMS, an electrolysis tech firm. The German OEM also committed itself to upgrading its gas turbines to run on 100% hydrogen by 2030.
Varegro starts using Cummins gas genset
June 25 – Belgian-based horticultural company Varegro, has started to use a Cummins HSK78G gas generator to power its greenhouses in Oostrozebeke, West Flanders. Varegro said it selected the Cummins HSK78G genset to produce combined heat and power (CHP) on its premises at a competitive cost for use in energy-intensive greenhouse facilities.
GE names Deloitte as independent auditor
June 24 – GE’s audit committee has selected Deloitte as the company’s independent auditor for the 2021 fiscal year, replacing KPMG. The selection of Deloitte concludes GE’s latest audit tender process.
Northern German states push for hydrogen pilot cluster
June 23 – Northern German states are pushing for greater hydrogen use with a pilot project cluster. Some 12 large demonstration plants for the production and use of green hydrogen are meant to be realised in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The aim is to demonstrate how 75% of CO2 emissions can be saved in the region by 2035.
Wärtsilä to design and equip battery-powered ferries
June 22– The Finish engine maker Wärtsilä has been awarded a contract to design and equip two new zero-emissions ferries on behalf of the Norwegian operator Boreal Sjö. For each ferry Wärtsilä will supply the thruster motors, batteries, onboard and shore-based battery charging equipment, the back-up generators, and various electrical systems. The equipment is scheduled for delivery to the yard in early 2021 for the ships to start commercial operations in autumn 2021.
Subsidy cut slashes Chinese wind turbine margins
June 19 – China’s wind turbine original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) could have their gross profit margins halved due to subsidy cuts, Wood Mackenzie forecasts. Commissioned onshore wind power capacity is expected to drop by more than 16% to 19 gigawatts (GW) from 2020 to 2021 as government subsidies were terminated. This could also lead to a 27% drop in turbine prices over the next five years, slashing OEMs’ gross profit margins by half.
PowerPHASE converts gas peakers into storage engine
June 18 – U.S. emergency power provider PowerPHASE has developed an upgrade to convert 7F gas turbine-based peaking plants (350 MW each) to a so-called Storage Engine (400 MW). The unit would be able to store 3500 MWh daily and discharge 4800 MWh daily. CEO Bob Kraft claims utility customers could dispatch the Storage Engine, despite its lower heat rate (4000), ahead of higher heat rate options (9000 for gas peakers) in a competitive market like ERCOT in Texas.
Cummins names Davis head of New Power unit
June 17 – Cummins has appointed Amy Davis as Vice President and President of the company’s New Power Segment, effective July 1. The new unit includes Cummins’ electrified powertrains, battery design and assembly, battery management, fuel cell and hydrogen generation.
GE powers USS Zumwalt
June 16 – The US Navy has taken delivery of the USS Zumwalt, its first full-electric power and propulsion ship, equipped by GE’s Power Conversion. The ship features a high-voltage system, propulsion drive trains with multi-phase VDM25000 power converters and advanced induction motors. Kevin Byrne, head of GE’s North America marine segment said “the full-electric power and propulsion ship has the flexibility to direct energy where it is needed on the platform.”
New England power prices down 40%
June 15 – Spot electricity prices in New England (NE) has fallen since winter 2019/20 when it stood at an average $28/MWh, down 40% from an average $47/MWh in the previous winter. Low natural gas prices, warmer-than-normal temperatures, lower loads, and reduced needs to run expensive peakload generators were the cause for the substantial drop in NE’s winter electricity prices, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) finds.
