Hybrid solution supports grid and reduces emissions

As part of the local community, CET is to provide hot water and electricity to feed the city district heating scheme and the grid at the regional capital of Arad in Romania.

Its aging combined heat and power (CHP) needed a revision. During this, CET requires a partner to help them provide these vital services for the local community for between three and five years.

To optimise the economics of its CHP solution, the plan is to sell the electric power generated by the plant to the national grid, and deliver important ancillary services, which help to balance the pan-European grid too.

CET needed a flexible contract term with the demand being temporary, and avoiding CAPEX also had to be taken into consideration.

Above all else, CET required a best-in-class CHP package that complied with regulations, while delivering reliable, cost-effective heat and power.

Aggreko were recommended for the job and our experts had to design and engineer an integrated solution to combine power production with balancing services and CO2 emissions reduction.

We devised a package that could produce electrical and thermal energy from natural gas, using a customised design.

We combined our high-efficiency gas generators with a waste-heat recovery system and our battery storage to supply our customer with a CHP solution that fits the requirement for both power and heat output.

We produced thermal energy by capturing exhaust gas and jacket water from gas engines, enhancing the overall efficiency of the solution and keeping emissions in check.

This fully flexible system allows none, some or all of the heat to be recovered. It means that it is perfectly suited to meet the required mix of electrical and thermal energy, depending on seasonal requirement

We reinforced the supply from the gas generators with battery storage to provide a hybrid resource that can respond to changes in demand instantly, which kept the frequency stable. This is because our batteries react with millisecond-level precision, which allows our customer to ramp up power to the gas turbines to provide longer-term support – and it means the gas turbines can run at their most efficient level.

Our bespoke solution cut the requirement for our customer to use its steam boiler to provide heat. Not only does this reduce carbon emissions, it also reduces the fuel bill.

This tailored approach makes it possible for our customer to fulfill their temporary requirement with a no-CAPEX solution and flexible contract terms. This allows for changes in our customers' operational processes that we can cater for.

Our integrated, hybrid solution is ready to be plugged in quickly, allowing our customer to negate any risks associated with production loss

The power plant can supply the ancillaries services with a comprehensive solution, including a software platform, which optimises costs and stabilises the grid.