Officials with UK-based power systems developer Rolls-Royce said the company is launching a new modular solution for gas engine power plants. The group on February 10 said the engines are designed to provide more security for the energy supply, and accelerate the implementation of the German government’s Power Plant Strategy.
Germany’s Power Plant Strategy, which is designed to move the country to an 80% renewable electricity share by 2030, centers on building 10 GW to 25 GW of “hydrogen-ready” natural gas-fired power plants to support the nation’s energy supply.
Rolls-Royce on Tuesday said its turnkey plants deliver from 5 MW to several hundred MW of power, depending on the user’s requirements. The company said the engines are immediately ready to burn hydrogen, and are suitable for the future use of that fuel. The company said the units are preconfigured, with 10, 20, and 30 MW of power each. Officials said the power plants can be connected to the grid within a year to 18 months after ordering.
“With our modular gas engine power plants, we are implementing the German Government’s Power Plant Strategy quickly and economically. Our partner network ensures speed and local value creation,” said Tobias Ostermaier, president of Stationary Power Solutions at Rolls-Royce Power Systems. “Utilities and data centers around the world rely on our solutions—more than 17 GW of installed capacity speak for themselves.”
The new engines are available to provide backup power, and also can help compensate for fluctuations in the feed-in from wind and solar energy, according to Rolls-Royce. The company noted, “This is particularly important during periods of low wind and low sunlight, when gaps of between 10 hours and several weeks need to be bridged.” The company also said, “In some applications, they can also act as a bridging solution—providing continuous power until a connection can be made to the grid, or another power source such as nuclear, at which point the gensets can switch to providing backup power.”
Rolls-Royce has long been supporting the UK energy market with its gas-fired power systems. The company on Tuesday noted that since 2014 the UK has been relying on a capacity market to switch its energy supply from coal-fired power generation to renewable energy resources and natural gas-fired power plants. The group said the use of decentralized gas engine power plants increases grid resilience, and support continued integration of renewable energy resources into the grid.
“True resilience comes from decentralization, not centralization,” said Michael Stipe, senior vice president for Strategy, Business and Product Development Stationary Energy Solutions at Rolls-Royce Power Systems. “An energy system based on many distributed, modular generation units is less susceptible to large-scale disruptions and bottlenecks. Modular gas engine power plants offer exactly this structure.”
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
