Abstracts - VGB PowerTech Journal 1-2/2014

Security of supply: Requirements and contributions from the perspective of energy-intensive industry

Günter Hilken and Hans-Jörg Preisigke

Guaranteeing security of supply and cutting of costs are the challenges of the turnaround in energy supply (“Energiewende”). The German chemical industry is making essential contributions and bears additional potentials. Successful continuation of these contributions at German sites requires a high level of security of supply and, above all, internationally competitive energy prices, especially for energy-intensive users. Furthermore, economically favourable conditions must be created for new industrial conventional power plants.

Energy lab Germany – What needs to be done now

Stephan Reimelt

Germany is currently playing a globally important role as the “energy lab” of the world due to the country’s unique energy policy. Germany is facing both complex challenges and opportunities generated by the “Energiewende”. However, certain developments call for action to make the “Energiewende” a success. We must focus on the original targets of climate protection, security of supply and competitiveness.

Ways for a utility to deal with the German “Energiewende”

Ralf Gilgen

The turnaround in energy policy in Germany, with the massive expansion of energy from renewable sources, is having dramatic effects on conventional power plants. The new requirements to be met by old power plants include not only fewer operating hours at full load, but also frequent start-ups and shutdowns and steep load gradients. With permanently low electricity prices, optimisation in operation and maintenance is also necessary. It remains to be seen whether these measures will be sufficient to keep the power plants in operation and to further ensure security of supply in Germany without capacity payments.

Solution from the perspective of European power plant suppliers

Emmanouil Kakaras, Thorsten Buddenberg and Jill Duggan

The EU has committed itself to ambitious long-term climate goals, including the increasing integration of renewable energy sources (RES) in the system. This will be a significant challenge for security of supply and grid stability, and thermal power plants will be needed to provide flexible part-load back-up, involving inter alia fewer operating hours and operation beyond their design limits. The most efficient power plants were optimised for maximum efficiency at full load, however, they cannot reach full potential in their new backup role. Increasing future demands for flexibility will require the continued development of new technologies.

The German “Energiewende”  from Central European perspective

Kazimierz Szynol

Germany is a country of an exceptional economic significance for Europe and the entire world, therefore everything that takes place in this country is carefully analysed and investigated especially in Central Europe. Hundreds of thousands jobs in EU-11 are directly or indirectly linked to the German economy. The installed capacity, of generation of electrical energy and power systems in Germany and EU-11 are compared. The article also assesses the differences regarding economic development and evaluates problems related to the “Energiewende” and its outcome for the German economy and society.

Nuclear power: The European perspective

Yves Giraud

Today, nuclear is facing some stormy weather in Europe: limited growth in electricity demand in the wake of the economic crisis, the ongoing impact of the Fukushima accident, a strong anti-nuclear lobby and a keen focus in the media on delays and cost overruns for new nuclear. Despite these challenges, EDF sees brighter times ahead for nuclear in Europe, and it is not alone with its assumption. Lots of European countries are considering life extension of existing nuclear and new build projects. Moreover, there is also a vital need for new build projects to maintain a European nuclear industry and prepare for the renewal of the existing fleet.

Competition versus regulation – Which market model fosters sustainability?

Udo Niehage

Germany’s energy transition aims at implementing an extraordinarily comprehensive and exceptionally rapid restructuring of the country’s energy system. To ensure that this transition succeeds, fundamental changes and corrections must be made to the present energy system. Current regulatory conditions do not provide the competitive environment that would foster the most cost-favourable solutions and fair burden sharing while ensuring secure supplies and promoting innovation. A reorganisation of Germany’s power market regulation, however, can send the right investment signals to the market and its players. Siemens has developed a proposal for a new market design with five components.

Central fleet performance monitoring with TDY for Australian integrated energy company Origin

Julia Burucker, Cameron Lee and Stefan Raab

Economic factors such as high fuel prices and return on investment requirements, coupled with operational needs like plant flexibility and environmental compliance challenge power plant owners to strive for optimum operation of their generation fleet. This calls for advanced tools for performance monitoring, diagnostics and process optimisation which reach beyond the scope of typical I&C functionalities. In this paper, the application of performance monitoring systems within the generation department of the Australian integrated energy company Origin is presented.

Developments steps of the new 110 MW gas turbine for retrofit and decentralised cogeneration plants

Jürgen Klebes, Hidetaro Murato and Marinus Joormann

In Japan, several combined-cycle plants are being upgraded through the use of a newly developed gas turbine (GT). The existing GTs are replaced by the newly developed GT. Under these guidelines, a new gas turbine of the 100 MW class has been developed as two-shaft system. By the design with compressor-driving turbine and a separate load turbine, the GT can be used for both the 60 Hz and 50 Hz market without
the use of a load gear. With a capacity of around 112 MW at about 38 % efficiency, this GT fits very well for medium size cogeneration plants also due to the fact, that very few GT were available in this class. Thus, it is ideally suited for CHP plants in the power range of approximately 150 MW with one GT to 450 MW with three GTs for cogeneration plants.

Circulating fluidised bed technology enables utility-scale biomass power generation

Robert Giglio

The European Union has set objectives to reduce at least 20 % of the European greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 from the 1990 level, and increase the share of renewable energy to 20 % of energy consumption, by the same year. Targets to increase the boiler efficiency and increase the use of biomass and other renewable fuels are well in line with these objectives. Circulating fluidised bed technology is an ideal technology to be used for efficient and large-scale power generation up to 300 MWe with a broad variety of biomass fuels. This paper describes the proven advanced bio CFB technology that represents the state-of-the-art for large-scale biomass firing. The technical features for advanced bio CFBs are discussed with applicable reference data. The paper focuses on the commissioning and first operation experience of the CFB boiler at the Polaniec site/Poland. GDF Suez Energia awarded the contract for the world’s largest 100 % biomass boiler burning wood residues and up to 20 % agro biomass fuel.

Simulation of municipal solid waste inciner­ation in grate firing systems with a particle based novel Discrete Element Method

Björn Brosch, Viktor Scherer and Siegmar Wirtz

For the design and optimisation of firing systems for coarsely granular solid fuel a numerical approach provides a feasible and cost-saving alternative to experimental investigations. Among the different simulation approaches, like strongly simplifying continuum models for the description of the bed material, the discrete element method (DEM) turns out to be the most complex, but also the most general and versatile method. The method, usually applied just for the description of the mechanical aspects of moving granular material, has been extended to thermal and thermochemical processes. Furthermore, the enhanced discrete element code is tightly coupled with a three-dimensional CFD simulation of the furnace atop.

Reliable data communication to decentralised renewable plants

Uwe Kullmann

The amount of renewables is growing very fast. The statistic for Germany shows that at the end of 2012 the installed capacity reached a volume of 31,000 MW. The high amount of decentralised plants and changed regulation laws challenges O&M in operating the fleet. Secure and reliable production needs underlying IT infrastructure that is working well. The VGB Working Group “Wind Energy” initiated a project to develop reliable and secure hardware for the connection of wind farms. The project result is now available for all VGB members and covers not only the requirements from wind power.