To develop such Power-to-X-Power solutions, ETN and its cooperation partners have embarked on the FLEXnCONFU project, short for FLEXibilize combined cycle power plant through Power-to-X solutions using non-CONventional Fuels. The project has a total budget of 12.6 million Euros and runs from April 2020 to the end of March 2024.
Co-firing reduces Opex
Hydrogen and ammonia, produced at low cost from excess supply of wind and solar power, can be stored and used as a cheap fuel by retrofitted combined-cycle gas power stations. Co-firing capability reduces the plant’s operating cost which can help increase their current low operating-hours.
To level the combined-cycle load, excess thermal electricity can also be converted into hydrogen or ammonia for re-use in the same power plant, if and when needed to respond to varying demand.
The new FLEXnCONFU layout is improving the fuel flexibility of gas-fired power plants and their overall efficiency. It can be retrofitted to combined heat and power units, flexible combined-cycle units or integrated coal gasification unit.
Trials at Ribatejo CCGT start in March 2023
To demonstrate the economically viable solutions, EDP will install a Power-to-Hydrogen system in a real operating environment at its Ribatejo combined-cyle gas power plant (3 x 392 MW), situated some 30 kilometers northeast of Lisbon. The three units, powered by Siemens V94.3A gas turbines in single shaft configuration, have a combined capacity of 1.176 MW.
Installation and commissioning of the developed technologies at Ribatejo plant will start in September 2021. Siemens, the subcontractor for the project, will handle the retrofit of the combustion chamber as other components. The actual trial runs to demonstrate the hydrogen co-firing are scheduled to start in March 2023.
Micro-turbine trials with ammonia
At the same time, a Power-to-Ammonia system will be installed at a micro gas turbine operating in a smart grid context at the Savona lab. In addition, tests with up to 100% ammonia co-firing at a heavy-duty gas turbine will be performed at Cardiff University’s combustion lab.
The consortium behind the FLEXnCONFU project is led by RINA Consulting. Partners include EDP, Backer Hughes, Cummins affiliate Hydrogenics, Proton Ventures, Tirreno Power, ENGI Laborelec, ICI Caldaie, MAS Advanced Technologies for Power and Energy as well as several European research institutions.