POWER July 2013 - 61

ELECTRIC POWER 2013: FLEXIBILITY AND ADAPTABILITY
plained Tony Thompson, chief technology
officer for Vogt Power International-even
when the HRSG is carefully designed for
it. Operating profitably and efficiently under
such conditions requires the ability to
monitor the impact on HRSG component
integrity and knowing whether replacement
or repair is most cost-effective. Vogt offers
an online monitoring system that records
and analyzes operational data to calculate
life cycles for critical components.
Small Power: When Size Matters
The fall in natural gas prices has renewed
interest in distributed generation (DG) and
combined heat and power (CHP) resources.
Small turbines are ideal for these applications
because of their flexibility, efficiency,
and low maintenance requirements, Uwe
Schmiemann, marketing manager for Solar
Turbines, told attendees.
The need for small, decentralized power
plants is likely to rise as the growth in renewable
generation continues to outstrip
transmission capabilities, Schmiemann
said. Their rapid start and agile load-following
capabilities, as well as the ability to
operate with little or no on-site manpower,
can efficiently manage localized grid fluctuations
resulting from increased amounts
of behind-the-meter renewables.
DG and CHP also showed their value
last year during Hurricane Sandy, when
facilities with their own generation were
able to keep the lights and heat on when
the grid went down and surrounding areas
were without power for weeks. In addition,
Schmiemann noted, the shift to small gas
turbines from older fuel oil systems offers
substantial emissions benefits for institutions
such as universities and hospitals that
have long generated their own power.
CHP is also growing in usage in industry
as lower gas prices offer economic benefits
over grid power, as well as a reduction in
emissions. As an example, Schmiemann
described a facility that was able to cut its
overall CO2
emissions by 60,000 tons by
installing a 15-MW CHP system.
Daniel Loero of GE Aero Energy described
DG and CHP applications for GE's
venerable LM series turbines. More than
2,000 are in service worldwide. Loero told
attendees about a new plant at a wind farm
in Kansas that uses three LM units to support
1.2 GW of wind generation. The turbines are
able to even out the wind farm's output and
compensate for short-term fluctuations.
Where very rapid response with high
efficiency is necessary, gas-fired engines
can be ideal, said Mark Harrer, business
development manager for Wärtsilä North
America. The key advantage of multi-engine
plants is that generation output can be
adjusted by turning individual engines on
and off as needed rather than ramping the
plant as a whole up and down. This allows
each engine to operate at peak efficiency
even when the plant is generating only a
portion of its total capacity, Harrer said.
Wärtsilä's newest engines have simple
cycle efficiencies greater than 46%. In
addition, they can maintain stable output
across wider ranges of ambient temperatures
and altitudes than gas turbines. The
engines can reach full power in 5 minutes,
shut down, and be back at full power 10
minutes later.
This offers another benefit, Harrer explained.
In competitive markets, the ability
to respond rapidly to price spikes can be
very lucrative. In one example he showed,
the ability to respond immediately to a
$3,000/MWh price spike returned $895,000
in revenue. ■
-Thomas W. Overton, JD is POWER's gas
technology editor.
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