Steam to power for must-run plants

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Maximize revenues by time-shifting steam for must-run plants

In recent years, the volatile feed-in of renewable energy sources has sent electricity prices into daily rollercoasters and anchilliary service compensation to the sky.

Due to inflexible boilers, industrial steam delivery contracts and/or disposal requirements, many existing biomass and waste-to-energy plants often can not benefit from this but instead are forced to accept losses in these hours and dump electricity when it is not needed.

Storing steam and turning it to power offers an antidote, bringing a new dimension to must-run electricity generation. By unlocking the flexibility to time-shift power production from low to high, additional revenues are generated.

How steam to power for must-run plants works

(1) High-pressure steam is withdrawn from live steam line or first extraction to directly charge the ThermalBattery™ in hours of low electricity prices (usually 2-3 hours)

(2) Steam is condensed inside the ThermalBattery™ system, and heat and incurring condensate is stored at minimal losses

(3) The ThermalBattery™ is discharged to medium pressure admission or industrial steam grid to boost power production on-demand during peak price hours or to generate earnings from ancillary services when requested

How this benefits your business

Boost your profits

Depending on customer setup, commercial payback usually takes less than 5 years, due to captured price deltas on spot- and intraday markets and participation in the secondary reserve market with at least two cycles per day. Total system efficiency of 70 to 80% due to pressure loss is significantly overcompensated by daily price spreads.

Increase security of supply

Increased security of supply for process steam customers in case of boiler trip (hot stand-by boilers can be set to cold stand-by).

Pioneer supporting renewables

Lighthouse project to highlight value of conventional plants for grid stability and system flexibility. The solution also supports carbon targets and carbon accounting.

How this solution is built

ThermalBattery™-package including modules, insulation, superstructure and thermal foundation.

Steam-BOP-package including piping, pressure-vessel, valves and instrumentation. Depending on customer requirements usually implemented within plants distributed control system (DCS).

Depending on customer set-up: utilization adjustment of existing steam turbine, or new specially designed replacement/additional turbines allowing to feed in at several stages in medium-pressure range by our partner SiemensEnergy.

You want to know more?

Are you interested in ENERGYNEST, or have any questions regarding our thermal energy storage solutions or our applications for your specific industry?

Don’t hesitate to drop us a line.

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Game-changing ThermalBattery™

All our customer solutions are based on our patented ThermalBattery™ technology. This enables high-performance thermal concrete storage at scale, using innovative embedded heat exchangers.

Dynamic delivery models

Together with our strong network of partners we deliver our solutions as turn-key systems, as build-own-operate, or simply adjust the ThermalBattery™ as hardware ‒ entirely according to your needs.