FLEXnCONFU

Demonstration

Power to Hydrogen to Power Demosite

Ribatejo Power Plant (owned and operated by EDP Gestão da Produção de Energia) is a gas turbine combined cycle power plant located on the right bank of the Tejo River (Tagus), about 30 km northeast of Lisbon, in Vala do Carregado. With a total installed capacity of 1.176 MWe (net), the plant comprises three similar and independent units (Siemens V94.3A), each one generating 392 MWe (net) fuelled by natural gas. The steam generated by recovering the heat from the gas turbine exhaust gases drives a condensation steam turbine, which is coupled to a common generator. The cooling circuit of the unit condenser is closed, with an evaporative cooling tower; the water to compensate the losses by evaporation is taken from the Tejo River. The electrolyser and the whole hydrogen supply system (hydrogen buffer storage to be connected at the electrolyser outlet, hydrogen compressor, 300bar hydrogen storage to store 400kg) will be installed in compliance with legal and safety requirements and standards for flammable gas (hydrogen) following the Portuguese regulation.

Power to Ammonia Pilot site

The Innovative Energy Systems (IES) Laboratory of the University of Genoa is composed of different prime movers (100 kWe mGT, 20 kWe internal combustion engine, 450 kWe hybrid system emulator rig, trigeneration plant, 10 kWp solar panels, 1.1 kWp photovoltaic plant) connected to the campus electrical grid and to thermal energy grids (both heating and cooling energy) equipped with vessels for storage technology emulation. Globally, the test rig can be used to emulate a smart micro-grid. The IES lab is part of the Smart Polygeneration Microgrid (SPM) of Savona University Campus and it is equipped with several dispatchable sources (mGT) and RES (PV and CSP). The FLEXnCONFU Power to Ammonia to Power system will be installed here in order to exploit the SPM potential of emulating the electrical markets, thanks to the different assets here installed.

Hydrogen and Ammonia combustion activities

The hydrogen and ammonia combustion activities will be demonstrated at lab-scale level at Cardiff University. Its combustion laboratory enables novel research studies to be conducted into the functionality of new GT combustion systems, components and fuels under elevated conditions of temperature and pressure as would be experienced within a gas turbine engine during operation. Measurements can be made with the following maximum throughputs using representative combustion systems: i) Combustion Air Flow Rate: <1 kg/s ii) Combustion Pressure: <6 bar abs iii) Combustion Air Pre-Heat Temperature: <700 K. An extensive suite of test rigs is available for the characterisation of fuel sprays and nozzles, and combustion systems using traditional fuels as well as alternative and renewable fuels.

ENGIE virtual demosite

The 460 MW combined cycle power plant in the north of Belgium will serve as a replication site in the project. This site, owned and operated by ENGIE Laborelec, consists of 2 Siemens SGT5-2000E gas turbines, of each 150 MW nominal power output, and 1 steam turbine. Currently, the plant can be operated in open cycle and in combined cycle, thanks to the bypass stacks, and generate up to 300 MW gas turbine power in under 15 minutes. The flexibility of the plant has further been increased by the enhancement of the operational window, and the lower minimum technical load (MEL) improvement.

Tirreno Power virtual demosite

Tirreno Power CCGT power plant (called Vado Ligure – VL5 unit) is located in Italy close to Savona campus of UGE. Unit VL5 is a multishaft, size 800 MW, combined cycle with two gas and one steam turbine (2+1). For Tirreno Power, the main target about flexibility are: reduce emission of NOx/GHG, increase ramp-up/down rates and start up time, increase efficiency.