Power October 2022 140th Anniversary Supplement - 24

occupy new land). Meanwhile, keeping
existing qualified staff can increase
acceptance in local communities and
beyond. Some examples of brownfield
opportunities include:
■ Coal-to-Gas. In the short term, coal
generation is converted to natural
gas, drastically reducing CO2
sions. In the mid-term, " H2
emis-ready "
plants,
later fully converted to hydrogen
or biofuels, reduce emissions
further. In the long run, these gas
power plants will be an essential
component for a completely decarbonized
energy system.
■ Brownfield Engine Exchange. Existing
gas-powered plants can be
equipped with new, more efficient
turbines. Existing steam cycles
can remain in place, while reducing
NOx
, CO, and CO2
emissions relative
to power output. In the European
Union, the target is to increase energy
efficiency by 32%, while reducing
emissions by 40% by 2030.
■ Rotating Grid Stability Conversion.
Reliable, stable grids require inertia.
In conventional fossil power plants,
large spinning turbines typically provide
this essential service. As many
of these are being phased out, " rotating
grid stabilizers " can ensure
grid stability. These stabilizers are
large pieces of existing spinning
machinery and usually a flywheel.
Connected to the grid and spinning
continuously, they provide all-important
inertia. It is not very difficult to
convert core parts of existing power
plants into such stabilizers.
■ Hybridization of Power Plants. Many
of today's power plant sites eventually
will be turned into hybrid plants,
integrating various functioning elements
into power generation.
Beyond Traditional Boundaries:
Distributed Energy Generation
A major trend in the power industry is
the movement away from centralized
energy supply to generating close to
where power is needed. This is an interesting
reversal of what generally
occurred in the 20th century, where centralized
utilities most often located large
generating plants in remote sites and
moved the power to market over wires.
24
PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE
The term of art for this move away
from central station generation is " distributed
energy. " Siemens Energy describes
this as devices below 100 MW
used to generate electricity, steam,
and heat for industrial customers and
municipalities.
In the centralized past of large-scale
generation, the focus was cheap electricity
supply, driven in part by economies
of scale. Today, and going forward,
the aim is to be sustainable, meaning
carbon neutral with a strong focus on
renewables, energy efficiency, and supply
matched to demand. This paradigm
shift can be clearly seen by changes in
public opinion, national and international
regulations, and carbon pricing.
To aide implementation of reduction
goals, more than 2,000 companies
around the world have joined the Science
Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), a
coalition of the Carbon Disclosure Project
(CDP), United Nations Global Compact
(UNGC), World Resources Institute
(WRI), and the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF) to reduce their emissions.
Siemens Energy is among the firms
supporting the organization. The company
is committed to becoming climate
neutral for scope 1 and 2 (internally generated
emissions) by 2030, using only
100% renewable electricity for its own
operations by 2023.
Deep decarbonization, the longterm
goal for the world to reduce effects
on the climate, must transcend
the electric power sector. It must also
transform all other industries. This requires
deep linkages among the power
sector, industrial energy and power,
and other energy-consuming sectors,
including transportation and buildings
large and small.
But today, rotating equipment, that
is, turbines, remain at the heart of industrial
heat and power generation. Some
generators aim to burn 100% green
hydrogen in time, which produces no
carbon emissions. All Siemens Energy
gas turbine models can burn levels of
hydrogen in the fuel mix. As previously
mentioned, the SGT-800 has recently
demonstrated 75% hydrogen co-firing,
clearing the way toward 100%.
A current example of what the future
could look like-the convergence of
multiple sector energy production-is
www.powermag.com
in Shanghai, China. In 2015, the Shanghai
Orient Champion pulp and paper
plant began an energy transformation.
The company produces face tissues,
paper and kitchen towels, toilet paper,
and paper rolls for the printing industry.
Paper production is considered one of
the five most energy-intensive industries.
Before 2015, the company, which
has the capacity to produce 140,000
tons of paper annually, had operated its
eight paper machine production lines
with grid power and externally generated
coal-fired high-quality steam.
In line with Chinese policy, the paper
company management decided to
invest in its own clean power generation
and explored the option of clean
and efficient gas-fired combined onsite
heat and power generation. Paper
production requires a reliable and
highly flexible power supply that can
always adapt to load shifts. Making paper
also requires steam for the drying
process. To avoid downtime, the company
was also looking for a solution
that was particularly service-friendly.
After researching various turbine
types and manufacturers, the paper
company chose the Siemens Energy
workhorse SGT-300 gas turbine. In 2017,
it ordered two SGT-300 single-shaft
turbine packages, with a total electric
capacity of 15.8 MW. Fired up in 2018-
the first onsite energy production in the
Chinese paper industry-the units are
working well. After several months of
trouble-free and stable operation, the
company completely canceled its external
power and heat supply.
" There are good reasons to be optimistic
about the future for gas turbines.
We expect that gas turbines will
have an increasingly important role to
support renewable energy sources by
providing backup power, and act as
an enabler for adding more renewable
power to the grids while keeping the
grid stable, " said Andersson. " But the
role of gas turbines will not only be to
support other renewable energy sources,
it will also be to provide renewable
power by operating on renewable fuels
such as hydrogen and biofuels. " n
-Kennedy Maize is a veteran energy
reporter and a frequent contributor to
POWER. Aaron Larson is POWER's
executive editor.
POWER Supplement | October 2022
http://www.powermag.com
Power October 2022 140th Anniversary Supplement

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