POWER November 2011 - 73

POWER IN thE NORdIc REgION
data collection of 15-minute interval readings,
integration of gas and water meters,
remote connect/disconnect, secure/encrypted
communication, measurement of microgrid
generation, and interfaces for reliable communication
with in-home displays.
To that end, in July, Fortum Norway
awarded a smart grid project to Echelon partner
Telvent to deploy Echelon's smart metering
system to Fortum Norway's 100,000
electricity customers. Fortum, with 1.6 million
customers, is a leading energy company
in the Nordic countries, Russia, and the Baltic
region. Fortum Norway is the seventh-largest
utility in Norway and holds a minority interest
in Hafslund, the largest utility in the nation.
Controlling Carbon Emissions. Even
though Norway's power sector contributes
little to greenhouse gas emissions, its massive
oil and gas extraction industry has been
developing carbon capture and sequestration
(CCS) techniques for some time. As the rest
of the world searches for ways to mitigate
the effects of power plant carbon emissions,
Norway may well play a leading R&D role
and has been a pioneer in such work.
In 1991, its government became the first
in the world to impose a federal tax on atmospheric
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions
from combustion-based point sources. It then
allocated a substantial portion of these funds
for CCS research programs. At the same
time, it developed a supportive legal framework,
for example, by resolving liability issues
for sequestered CO2.
For 15 years, Norway's StatoilHydro and
partners ExxonMobil and Total have been
capturing CO2 from the Sleipner gas field,
storing it 1,000 meters beneath the Utsira formation
in the North Sea, and monitoring their
efforts (Figure 8). More recently, efforts have
shifted to capturing CO2 from power plants.
In October 2006, the Norwegian government
granted Statoil permission to build a
CHP plant at Mongstad. The government and
Statoil agreed on developing CCS technology
at the roughly $1 billion project in two
stages: First, a CO2 Capture Technology
Centre (TCM), followed by construction of a
large-scale plant. The large-scale CCS project
at Mongstad includes CO2 capture (from
the CHP plant's flue gas) followed by transport
by pipeline for storage under the seabed
in the North Sea. At full capacity, emissions
from the CHP plant may be up to 1.3 million
tons of CO2 annually.
Construction of the TCM is progressing
according to plan, and it is expected to be
in operation by 2011/2012, according to the
government. TCM is the largest planned pilot
project of its kind, with an annual capacity
for handling up to 100,000 tons of CO2. The
TCM will test CO2 capture on two types of
November 2011 | POWER
flue gases using two capture technologies;
hence, the testing is also relevant to CCS on
coal-fired power plants. One source of flue
gas is the existing catalytic cracker facility at
the Mongstad Refinery, and the other source
is the gas-fired CHP plant. Two capture technologies
will be tested in parallel: amine
technology and chilled ammonia technology.
As with CCS projects elsewhere, there
have been difficulties and delays. In October
2010, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy
called for an evaluation of " alternative solutions "
to execute a large-scale carbon capture
plant after " theoretical studies " indicated
health and environmental risks related to
amine technology. Testing was planned to
start in early 2012. The final investment decision
has now been delayed until 2014.
In June, the ministry announced nominations
for " suitable areas in the North Sea
and the Norwegian Sea for exploration for
potential reservoirs for permanent storage of
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73
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POWER November 2011

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