American IPP Calpine Corporation this week started commercial operations of two CCGT power plants with a combined capacity of almost 1GW near San Francisco, California, the new 619MW Russell City Energy Center and the preexisting 309MW Los Esteros Critical Energy Facility.
RWE, Germany's second largest power producer by output capacity, has decided to close a total of 3,100MW, or around 6% of its total generation capacity of 52GW, as first-half year profits plunged 38% amid a recession-induced drop in electricity demand and competition from renewables.
US manufacturer Capstone Turbine Corporation will supply six turbines for shale gas treatment facilities of an undisclosed producer at its gas pipeline in West Virginia. Jim Crouse, Capstone's executive vice president, said "We normally provide turbines to power site load at the wellhead for processing equipment and treatment equipment."
PW Power Systems (PWPS), part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has struck the first sale of an aero-derivative 120 MW simple-cycle FT4000 gas turbine to Exelon Generation.
Clarke Energy has bought the Bangladesh arm of Orient Power Systems in an effort to become a market leader, and has also been appointed as distributor and service provider for GE Jenbacher gas engines in the country.
Widening cost divergence between coal and gas generation and spark spreads becoming ever more negative amid rising renewable feed-in, has caused a 42 percent plunge in E.ON's first-half 2013 profit and heralds further power plant closures in Europe.
"A sober view of the situation indicates that, at least for 2013 and 2014, no recovery is in sight," said E.ON CEO Johannes Teyssen when presenting the results.
EDF has handed over operation of three of its nuclear plants in the US, two in New York and one in Maryland, to its joint venture partner Exelon, citing higher profitability of generating electricity from gas and operational risks of nuclear reactors.
South Korea's state-owned Kogas has forecast its domestic LNG sales in 2013 will jump 3.6 percent year-on-year to reach 36.548 mtpa amid rising demand from gas-fired power generators. A heat wave propelled up electricity consumption and squeezed reserve margins, prompting the energy ministry to ration energy use to avert the risk of blackouts.
Despite the growth in capacity, not all gas-fired plants are continuously used as Brazil's gas industry is going through a transition period and is adjusting to changes in the gas supply balance whereby lower imports of pipeline gas from Bolivia are balanced with rising LNG imports and new domestic gas reserves from upstream projects in Santos, Campos, and Espririto Santos basin.
This insight comes from a thought-provoking book released by the British Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Brazil (Britcham) entitled Doing Energy Business in Brazil.
Use of premix combustion chambers has helped MAN Diesel and Turbo achieve a breakthrough by reducing nitrogen-oxide (NOx) emissions at its MGT 6100 gas turbine (6-8 MW) to single digits at up to 100 percent load.
Capacity markets will provide stable cash flows to thermal generators in the UK to enable them to finance new projects at lower discount rates, reflecting lower risk. However, financiers may find that regulatory uncertainty exceeds the price risk in energy-only markets, warns Dr. Jim Fitzgerald, associate partner at The Advisory House.
Alstom has validated its MXL2 upgrade for GT26 gas turbines, enabling operators to flexibly dispatch their plants and match production hours to fluctuating demand – a key requirement in markets with high volumes of intermittent renewable power supply such as Spain or Germany.