Wärtsilä: UK's gas strategy paves way for renewed government focus on flexible gas generation
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
Wärtsilä Corporation, Press release, 5 December 2012, at 4.15 pm (EET)
With intermittent renewable energy resources and nuclear set to become a bigger
part of the UK's energy mix, it is essential that policymakers put a suitable
framework in place today to encourage the construction of most flexible gas
plants. Wärtsilä, a leading global supplier of flexible and efficient power
plant solutions, has conducted comprehensive research, commissioned through
Redpoint Energy and Imperial College London, which shows that flexible rather
than conventional gas power generation could offer significant savings for the
UK.
Responding to the publication of the UK Government's Gas Generation Strategy,
published on 5 December 2012, Vesa Riihimäki, President, Wärtsilä Power Plants,
says:
"We welcome the Government's announcement of continued support for gas
generation in the UK, and hope that now the focus can shift to the important and
necessary role that flexible gas generation can play in a largely decarbonised
UK electricity system in future.
Flexible gas plants should be a core part of an efficient flexible portfolio
required to efficiently balance the variable output from intermittent renewable
generation such as wind. Having sufficient flexibility is essential to
maximising the output of renewables and facilitating the transition towards a
low carbon economy, while minimising the costs to consumers associated with
having power plants on standby.
This needed flexibility is most efficiently delivered through modern gas power
plants especially designed to fast ramp up and down from cold for short periods,
also referred as Smart Power Generation."
Substantial savings to be achieved
Wärtsilä's own research, commissioned through Redpoint Energy and Imperial
College London, has shown that flexible rather than conventional gas generation
could save the UK between GBP 380 million to GBP 550 million by 2020 alone
through reduced balancing costs incurred by National Grid, rising to between GBP
580 million and GBP 1.54 billion by 2030.
"With intermittent renewables and nuclear set to become a bigger part of the
UK's energy mix, it is essential that policymakers put a suitable framework in
place today to encourage the construction of modern and most flexible gas
plants. The alternative is to become increasingly reliant on existing
conventional thermal generation that may not have the technical or commercial
ability to efficiently balance renewable generation, leading to an increase in
costs to the utility companies and eventually to the UK consumer," Riihimäki
continues.
Smart Power Generation
Smart Power Generation enables transition to a modern, sustainable power system.
Its main cornerstones are high energy efficiency, outstanding operational
flexibility, and multi-fuel operation. For today's emerging low-carbon power
systems, it balances large input fluctuations of wind and solar power. It also
provides high efficiency base load, peaking, and load-following power, as well
as super-fast grid reserves on a national power system level.
Wärtsilä is the global leader in Smart Power Generation. Wärtsilä's technology
and power plant solutions have been developed to provide a unique combination of
valuable features that enable new horizons for future sustainable, reliable and
affordable national power systems.
A study by Redpoint Energy and Imperial College London
Wärtsilä Power Plants commissioned Imperial College London and Redpoint Energy
to analyse the potential value of system flexibility through detailed modelling
of the UK power market and balancing costs. Two underlying capacity scenarios
were modelled for 2020 and 2030: a base wind scenario and a high wind scenario.
The base wind scenario includes around 10 GW of offshore wind in 2020 and around
15 GW in 2030. The high wind scenario includes around 20 GW in 2020 and close to
40 GW in 2030. In both scenarios, 4.8GW of conventional CCGTs is replaced with
4.8GW of gas-fired Smart Power Generation.
+--------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+
|Balancing costs - flexibility |2020 |2030 |
|provision (GBP million per annum, real+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|2011) |Base wind|High wind|Base wind|High wind|
+--------------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|Costs - No SPG |692 |1008 |834 |2781 |
+--------------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|Costs - With 4.8GW SPG |311 |464 |256 |1244 |
+--------------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|Costs Saving due to SPG |381 |545 |578 |1537 |
+--------------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
The results of the modelling highlighted that in both the 2020 and 2030
scenarios, significant reductions in balancing costs incurred by National Grid
would be achieved reduced through the presence of Smart Power Generation on the
system, in addition to optimising the amount of renewable energy deployed across
the entire system. As a result, reductions in balancing costs will lead to
cheaper electricity prices for the consumers.
Further information about Wärtsilä's report can be made available upon request.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Melle Kruisdijk
Director, Market Development
Wärtsilä Power Plants
Tel: +31 6100 32823
Email: melle.kruisdijk(at)wartsila.com
Tuula Franck
Senior Manager, Media and Stakeholder relations
Wärtsilä Corporation
Tel: +358 400 267555
Email: tuula.franck(at)wartsila.com
Wärtsilä Power Plants in brief
Wärtsilä is a leading supplier of power plants for the power generation market.
The company supplies power plants, mechanical drives and operation &
maintenance services to electricity utilities, industry, local authorities and
other electricity and heat producers for operation on a wide range of liquid or
gaseous fuels.
Wärtsilä's market sectors include flexible base load, industrial self-
generation, grid stability and peaking. We have over 430 MW installed power in
the United Kingdom at such diverse sites as Southampton City Centre, Edinburgh
Hospital, CitiGEN London, and ExCEL Conference Centre in London Docklands
Globally, Wärtsilä has delivered 4,600 power plants in 169 countries with a
total generating capacity of close to 49 GW
Further information on Wärtsilä Power Plants can be found:
www.wartsila.com/powerplants
Further information on Smart Power Generation can be found here:
www.smartpowergeneration.com.
Wärtsilä in brief
Wärtsilä is a global leader in complete lifecycle power solutions for the marine
and energy markets. By emphasising technological innovation and total
efficiency, Wärtsilä maximises the environmental and economic performance of the
vessels and power plants of its customers.
In 2011, Wärtsilä's net sales totalled EUR 4.2 billion with approximately
18,000 employees. The company has operations in nearly 170 locations in 70
countries around the world. Wärtsilä is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki,
Finland.
www.wartsila.com
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Source: Wärtsilä Oyj Abp via Thomson Reuters ONE
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