Alstom Thermal Power has signed a contract worth over €100 million (US$12 million) with Arabian Bemco Contracting Co. & GS E&C to provide the steam tail for the Riyadh PP12 gas-fired power plant being constructed by them for the Saudi Electric Company (SEC).
EPEX SPOT and EEX, the French and German partner bourses, are calling for a Europe-wide instead of a national design of future power markets with a view to incentivise investment and accommodate the growing share of renewable.
Centrica's North American subsidiary, Direct Energy, has agreed to buy two New York-based power retailer Energetix and NYSEG Solutions for US$110 million (£71 million) in cash, plus additional working capital.
MCV Holding applied today to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) for an air permit to install of a 640 MW combined-cycle natural-gas-fired power plant (CCPP) at a MCV-owned site in Midland, Michigan. The company currently owns and operates a 1,630 MW CCPP at the site.
French investment bank Société Générale has revised down its gas and electricity forecast for the financial year 2012, prompted by a 2.7% year-on-year drop in gas demand in the first half of this year.
Duro Felguera, a Spanish engineering and construction company, has won a contract to realise the gas-fired Vuelta de Obligado power plant project (800 MW) in Argentina in cooperation with GE and the local engineering firm Fainser, on a turnkey contract basis.
Japanese Marubeni Corporation has won a contract to carry out a gas turbine overhaul for the Ywama combined cycle power plant (CCPP) in Myanmar from Myanma Electric Power Enterprise (MEPE). Hitachi will supply the parts needed for the overhaul works.
Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has commissioned the third 250 MW gas turbine at the 1,500 MW Pragati-III Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP) in Delhi, India. "The full load operation of the unit has been achieved within a day of unit getting synchronized," BHEL said.
GDF SUEZ subsidiary International Power, in association with consortium partners, has been selected as preferred bidder for the combined heat and power plant CHP5 in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.
Natural gas prices as delivered to power plants in the U.S. plunged to a ten-year low in April, allowing gas to reach parity with coal in net electric power generation for the first time since the Energy Information Administration (EIA) began collecting data.
Gazprom has entered negotiations with E.ON on a special pricing mechanism for gas used for power generation, which prompted Societe Generale to forecast that the majority of gas in Europe will not be priced under an oil-linked formula as of 2014e.
Swiss power and automation technology group ABB has won two orders to help Swedish iron ore producer Northland Resources operate its new concentrator plant at the highest levels of energy efficiency. "The extremely tight schedule makes this project unique," ABB said with reference to production start-up planned as early as November 2012.
Wartsila India has launched a Remote Monitoring Station in the southern Indian city of Chennai. The new station will ensure real time monitoring of power plants by Wartsila personnel in Chennai, backed by technical support from Wartsila Condition Based Maintenance (CBI) Centre in Finland. Wartsila expects the plant monitoring will save maintenance costs and improve their operational reliability.
Wood Group GTS, an independent provider of rotating equipment services, has won a $1 million contract to effectuate a combustion inspection on a GE Frame 7EA dual fuel gas turbine at a power plant located in Kansas, U.S.
News in Brief
Rolls-Royce conducts laser field tests in the US
May 18 – Rolls-Royce has successfully conducted laser field tests to demonstrate ‘deep magazine’ power capability for directed applications in connection with Lockheed Martin’s layered laser defense project. Deep magazine power can be provided by a battery-only system, but the Rolls-Royce ColdFire system includes both battery-powered and near-continuous firing modes provided by M250 gas turbine engines.
Gas vs oil ratio increases in the Bakken
May 17 – The ratio of natural gas to crude oil production has risen in North Dakota’s Bakken region since 2008, and continues to accelerate. According to the US Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report, annual gas gross withdrawals in the Bakken increased by 9% to an annual high of 2.97 Bcf/d in 2021, even though the region’s crude oil production fell by 6%.
Middle East shifts to gas power
May 16 – The Middle East, a region vulnerable to climate change, is undergoing a major shift from petroleum-based power plants towards gas-fired generation and renewable power sources. Capacity additions of over 185.46 GW are the pipeline, according to ResearchandMarkets, as the regions electricity demand for industry and residential cooling is set to grow. In fact, cooling already accounts for 70% of residential power demand.
Carbon utilisation in strong demand
May 13 – The market for carbon utilisation is forecast to grow rapidly from the 2030s onwards to surpass $285 billion by 2042, driven by rising climate commitments and a favourable regulatory framework. In its latest report IDTechEx also highlights the role of technology advances such as thermodynamics which help sequester CO2 permanently.
MTU gensets approved for biofuels
May 12 – Rolls-Royce has gained approval to use synthetic fuels in its MTU Series 4000 and Series 1600 diesel engines for power generation application. Field testing confirmed both engines can use a range of sustainable fuels including biomass-to-liquid, hydrotreated vegetable oil and power-to-liquid fuels such as e-diesel.
E.ON tells Germans how to save gas
May 11 – A large-scale switch to heat pumps, solar power and better demand-side management could help save Germany nearly 100 TWh of natural gas per year, E.ON has said, calling on households to contribute to Europe’s efforts to reduce reliance on Russian gas imports. “If 10% of the homes in Germany are equipped with solar PV installations, 20% of gas boilers are replaced by heat pumps, and the average temperature in all households is reduced by one degree Celsius on average, this would lead to natural gas savings of 103 TWh per year," E.ON Energy CEO Filip Thon said, noting this volume would equate to about 30% of Germany’s current gas imports from Russia.
Exelon Q1 earnings lower following Constellation cave-out
May 10 – Exelon has reported lower first quarter earnings and a higher operating revenue, having completed the separation of Constellation Energy – Excelon’s former power gen business. Focussing now solely on transmission and distribution, Exelon’s net income from continuing operations for the first quarter of 2022 decreased to $0.49 per share from $0.53 a share in pre-year period. In contrast, adjusted operating earnings notched up to $0.64 per share, primarily due to due to higher electric distribution earnings at ComEd from higher rate base and higher allowed electric distribution. Rate increases at Excelon’s group companies PECO, BGE, and PHI were partially offset by higher depreciation expenses at BGE and PHI.
South Africa to add 2.6 GW of new capacity
May 9 – South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, has just announced the REIPPPP BW6 Request for Proposals (RFP). The bid round will add 2,600 MWs of new capacity to the energy mix. The ministry seeks to procure 11,813 MW of electricity from various power sources including renewable energy, storage, gas and coal.
GE Gas Power authorized as CVE Numbering Authority
May 6 – GE Gas Power’s increased focus on cybersecurity has been recognized by the Common Vulnerability and Exposures Programm as a ‘CVE Numbering Authority (CNA). As such, GE Gas Power can now assign CVE identification numbers to newly discovered vulnerabilities potentially related to its products and allow GE Gas Power to directly publish new CVE Records and streamline the reporting process.
Heliogen gets nearly $90m in funding
May 5 – Heliogen has moved from design into testing and implementation of its supercritical CO2 power gen system that will be deployed for Woodside in California. The system consists of a 5 MWe sCO2 power block integrated with high temperature solid media thermal energy storage. The demonstration project is being funded with up to $50 million from Woodside, along with $39 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE).
Capstone to install microturbine in the Caribbean
May 4 – E-Finity Distributed Generation, Capstone's distributor for the Mid-Atlantic, Southeastern United States and the Caribbean, has secured an order for two C1000S microturbines for a government water authority in the Caribbean. The 2 MW system will provide emergency standby power to several pumping stations throughout the remote island community and is scheduled to be commissioned towards the end of 2022.
Forecasting solar and energy storage in CAISO
May 3 – Marubeni has chosen Veritone’s AI-based distributed energy resource management solution (iDERMS) to provide price, demand and generation forecasts at their pilot project in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) SP-15 region. In addition to day-ahead and real-time generation figures, Veritone will also forecast production and demand for the overall CAISO region.
Forecasting solar and energy storage in CAISO
May 2 – Marubeni has chosen Veritone’s AI-based distributed energy resource management solution (iDERMS) to provide price, demand and generation forecasts at their pilot project in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) SP-15 region. In addition to day-ahead and real-time generation figures, Veritone will also forecast production and demand for the overall CAISO region.
Steam turbines in high demand
April 29 – The market for steam turbines for power generation will grow around 6.5% through to 2027, driven by the build-out of combined-cycle gas power plants – notably in Asia and the United States, ResearchAndMarkets finds. Coal power projects in China, India and Bangladesh also require significant numbers of steam turbines. “Many of the countries in Asia-Pacific cannot provide 24-hour electricity to its citizens, and the cheapest way to achieve the objective is to build thermal [coal power] plants and use steam turbines,” analysts commented.
LNG-fuelled power for Antigua
April 28 – Antigua Power Company Limited (APCL) has contracted Wärtsilä to supply and install a 46 MW dual-fuel power plant on the Caribbean island. The plant will operate primarily on regasified LNG, imported through a small-scale import terminal developed by U.S.-based Eagle LNG in partnership with APCL.
ION launches risk analyser
April 27 – ION Commodities has built a cloud-based solution – FEA Analyzer – to help energy and commodity firms transition to new renewable energy markets while simultaneously optimizing trading strategies and supply chains. The tool combines pre-trade analytics with risk management and asset optimization, all powered by predictive analytics and stochastic models.
Capstone to service 600kV microturbine
April 26 – Capstone has landed a rental contract for a 600 kilowatt (kW) microturbine-based system with one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America. Due for commissioning in mid-May 2022, the plant will supply power to remote mid-stream operations along the customer's gas pipeline in Colorado.
