Abstracts - VGB PowerTech Journal 1-2/2005

EURELECTRICs View on Ensuring Investments in the Electricity Sector

Th. Barth

The European electricity sector faces huge needs in investments within the next decades. According to EURELECTRIC´s projections, investments of more than 500 billion € are needed for new generation capacity in order to meet the increasing demand and to replace retiring power plants up to 2030 in EU 15. The same amount or even more is needed for transmission and distribution. EURELECTRIC has started at an early stage to deal with these problems and described the necessary framework to secure the investments required in the next decades.

Closing the Circle of Competitiveness: The Need to Reorient European Electricity Policy

P. Bulteel

Balanced foundations for an EU-wide electricity market that is open and competitive have been created. However, an ideal for legislation and regulation is needed that is persistent, coherent and market oriented and which follows the principle of maximisation. This is the environment required by utilities to meet their obligations towards customers, industry and society. Besides, it is also important to keep open all energy options.

Requirements for the Energy Economy and Policy from the Viewpoint of Industrial and Commercial Energy Consumers

Horst R. Wolf

The current amendment of the German Energy Act, which should implement the EU acceleration directives concerning the internal markets for electricity and gas dated June 23, 2003, offers significant opportunities for structuring and organising the energy economy in Germany in a way that can really serve the competitiveness of the markets. In this respect, the consumer side claims for a competitive level of tariffs, a regulatory authority with competencies allowing it to further develop the markets. All parties involved are appealed to act according to their responsibility for Germany as an industrial and commercial location and thus for a functioning competitive energy market.

Efficient Power Generation in Coal- and Gas-fired Power Plants

J. Lambertz

In the next decades, the electricity demand in Europe will increase further, and at the same time the European power plant portfolio will be outdated. Thus, comprehensive investments are necessary. The resulting capacity gap has to be filled by a broad energy mix. Politicians have to make their contribution through reliable statements on resource savings, emission reduction and supply security in order to make investments economically justified.

Does Nuclear Energy Have a Future in Europe?

R. Güldner

Nuclear energy is among the important sources of energy in the European Union. In view of the renewal of the European power plant portfolio, the following three topics of sustainable energy supply have to be on the agenda: economic efficiency, climate protection and supply security. Nuclear energy meets these three important aspects. An energy mix has to be aimed at where the different sources of energy complement each other.

Status and Prospects of Renewable Energies

H. Haider

Public debate over support for the development of renewable energy sources (RES) is, in the opinion of the European electricity industry, being conducted on the basis of incomplete and one-sided analyses, which largely omit the efficiency factor in the pursuit of the objectives. This jeopardises the attainment of the basic goal – to ensure a sustainable, reliable and deliverable energy supply for Europe into the future. All stakeholders are to enter into a comprehensive dialogue on how to ensure a high level of security of energy supply from environmentally-friendly and efficiently-generated electricity at market-determined prices.

Emissions Trading – Emerging Markets
– A New Environmental Regime is Taking Shape in Germany –

F. Schafhausen

With the entering into force of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Act (TEHG) on 15 July 2004 the legal framework will finally be set out and thus important legal conditions will be established for the start of an emissions trading system in Germany. The Federal German Emission Allowance Trading Authority (DEHSt) will mainly be in charge of managing the German emissions trading system on a technical level. The Länder, however, will be competent for the permit procedure of the installations and will assist in monitoring and reporting of emissions. The paper will set out the core provisions of the draft of the TEHG in its context.

Trading with Emissions Certificates – Preparation for the European-wide Start in 2005

K.-P- Dielmann, M. Mehlkopf and B. Cudina

The European Emissions Trading System was started on 1st January 2005. After the procedure of application had been finished in September 2004, where companies could propose the free allocation of CO2-certificates, the companies were granted the allocations by the responsible public office DEHSt, that determines the definite amount of free CO2-certificates for every plant for the period 2005 to 2007. This article describes the problems the companies had so far, and compares the German methods of allocation with those of other European countries.

Salzbergen Energy Concept; Replacement of Two Oil-fired Steam Generators by a Thermal Waste-to-energy Plant

E. Junker and W. Schulz

H&R ChemPharm has been operating for a long time a refinery at the Salzbergen site for the production of basic substances to be used in the chemical-pharmaceutical industry and for the production of lubricants. These processes require process steam and electric power. The future energy concept of the Salzbergen refinery is based on the combination of the existing industrial power plant with a thermal waste-to-energy plant. Utilisation of the existing power plant infrastructure minimises investments for new plants, and the combustion of waste stands for minimum fuel cost, thus, a cost-efficient energy supply can be guaranteed.

Turbines for Waste- and Biomass-incineration Power Plants

R. Lindner

In waste-incineration and biomass-fired power plants, which are equipped with boilers designed for live steam data of about 40 bar, 400 °C, the areas of the superheaters are often exposed to extreme wear due to high-temperature corrosion in spite of these low steam parameters. The consequences are time-consuming reconditioning work required at relatively short time intervals. Despite of all preventive measures, future service work on the turbine will be necessary. To minimise the outage times during turbine overhauls appropriate strategies have to be developed.

The 265 MW Variable Speed Pump-turbine Units of PSPP Goldisthal – Components, Mode of Operation, Ancillary Services

U. Voigt

This paper describes the Goldisthal pumped-storage power plant and the construction of the double-fed induction machine that works as motor generator in the variable speed pump storage power plant units A and D. The advantages of using variable-speed units, the functionality of mode-changing and of grid-connected modes, of simulated and real behaviour during system regulation, for instance, primary and secondary control of the power system in turbine and in pump mode, are also outlined.

Thermal and Mechanical Stress of Refractory Materials in Waste Incineration Plants

J. Krüger

Nitride-bound plates are applied successfully in waste-to-energy plants. While the material itself is sufficiently resistant against all mechanical, thermal and chemical stresses, stayings and connecting materials (concrete, adhesive cement), that guarantee the heat transfer to the membrane wall, have to be optimised. When analysing the damage, it was found out that the plates tend to buckle from the centre due to the heat flux. The resulting damage mechanism will mainly affect the stayings.

Dynamic Chlorine-induced High-temperature Corrosion of Boiler and Superheater Tubes Due to Particular Conversions in the Foulings – Frequent Finding in Waste and Biomass-fired Boilers

W. Spiegel, Th. Herzog, G. Magel, W. Müller, and W. Schmidl

Based on failure studies in waste fired boilers, particular corrosion phenomena are proved, described and assessed in this article. The corrosion mechanism is based on chlorine-induced, high-temperature corrosion and the type is characterised as “dynamic”. The relevance of operational influence and first approaches to the avoidance are discussed.

The Detailed Design of Dished Ends

A. Lietzmann, J. Rudolph and E. Weiß

The sizing of dished ends in torispherical or semi-elliptical shape with or without nozzles based on pressure equipment codes and on design by rule (DbR) is a standard task. Although the design formulae are easy to handle, their accuracy and range of validity should be examined. Particularly the presence of nozzles in the knuckle region complicates the geometry of the structure and its handling within an appropriate design approach. As there is often a functional requirement for a certain positioning of nozzles general recommendations are of high practical interest.