Wärtsilä, a provider of lifecycle power solutions, will supply Indonesia's first ever gas engine based peaking power plant. The plant, located in Sei Gelam Jambi in Sumatra, is scheduled to be built and fully operational before the end of 2012.
General Electric's vice chairman John Rice has confirmed GE's 2012 outlook and expectations for continued double-digit revenue growth from its Industrial and Capital segments in its global growth regions in 2012 and 2013. "The world needs more power (...) to meet the needs of growing populations and an emerging middle class," Rice said at an investor meeting today.
ABB, a power and automation technology group, has secured orders worth over US$70 million from the state controlled Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) to build five new substations in Saudi Arabia. In the fourth quarter of 2011, ABB received orders from SEC totaling more than US$250 million, it said.
Investment in new gas-fired and nuclear plants, rather than wind power, could save the U.K. £45 billion in meeting its 2050 carbon reduction, AF Consult, a Sweden-headquartered technical consultancy, said in a recent report sponsored by the global accountancy firm KPMG.
Wärtsilä, a provider of lifecycle power solutions, has won a contract to expand the power generation capacity of to the Varreux power plant in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Delivery of the necessary equipment will be made in the course of 2012 on a "fast-track basis", Wärtsilä said today.
Alstom Power has launched a GT13E2 gas turbine upgrade, offering over 200 MW power, an additional 10% of electricity output when compared to the earlier rating. "The higher output has an increased efficiency of 38% - the best in this segment of gas turbines," Michael Ladwig, Director, Marketing & Product Management at Alstom's Gas Business said at a web conference today.
RWE, Germany's second-largest utility, has posted a 9% drop in its 2011 electricity generation volume to 205.7 billion kilowatt hours (kW). The decrease is attributable to outages of several gas-fired power plants in the Netherlands and in the U.K. as well as to the shut-down of the Biblis nuclear power station, RWE said today when presenting its 2011 annual results.
Power generator can improve safety, reliability and efficiency by installing multifunctional wireless networks in power plants, a white paper published by Honeywell Process Solution shows.
General Electric's (GE) TM2500+ aeroderivative gas turbine has received ecomagination qualification for its ability to help power cities and industries during emergency power challenges. "The TM2500+ is a workhorse in the global aeroderivative mobile fleet," GE said.
The volume of natural gas used for power generation in the U.S. surged by 27% this February compared with the same month last year, according to estimates of BENTEK Energy LLC, an energy market analytics company.
Saudi Electricity (SEC), Saudi Arabia's state controlled utility, has posted a tender to find a partner for building and operating a 1,700 MW independent power plant (IPP) in Saudi Arabia. Expressions of interest in running the plant should be submitted by March 21, SEC said today.
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Alstom is offering upgrades to its GT26 installed fleet in Spain to improve efficiency and flexibility of gas-fired power plants to make them more suitable for balancing intermittent electricity supply from renewable energies.
"These upgrades increase the power plant's output and efficiency including performance at part-load which is key for renewables integration," Michael Ladwig, Director, Marketing & Product Management at Alstom's Gas Business told Gas-to-Power Journal today.
India is ready to import 5 GW of electricity from Iran as the two countries reached an agreement to export electricity instead of natural gas. Electricity exports will be "more cost-efficient" for Iran compared with exporting natural gas, Iran's energy minister Majid Namjou said on Sunday.
China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has given Huaneng Power International the regulatory green light for its Huaneng Yunnan Chuxiong natural gas-fired co-generation power plant project in Yunnan province, south-western China.
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.
