Centrica Re-Opens Rough Storage Facility
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Centrica.
It has this sub-heading.
Rough Operational For Winter And Increases UK’s Storage Capacity By 50%.
On the face of it, this sounds like good news and these two paragraphs give more details.
Centrica has announced the reopening of the Rough gas storage facility, having completed significant engineering upgrades over the summer and commissioning over early autumn.
The initial investment programme means the company has made its first injection of gas into the site in over 5 years and is in a position to store up to 30 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas for UK homes and businesses over winter 2022/23, boosting the UK’s energy resilience.
Note.
- The Rough gas storage facility has been able to hold up to 100 billion cubic feet of gas in the past.
- Rough is a complex field with two platforms and thirty wells transferring gas to and from the facility.
- Additionally, there is an onshore gas-processing terminal at the Easington Gas Terminal, where it connects to the UK gas network.
It appears to be a comprehensive gas storage facility, that should get us through the 2022/3 winter.
These two paragraphs from the press release, which are the thoughts of the Centrica Chief Executive are significant.
Centrica Group Chief Executive, Chris O’Shea, said “I’m delighted that we have managed to return Rough to storage operations for this winter following a substantial investment in engineering modifications. Our long-term aim remains to turn the Rough field into the world’s biggest methane and hydrogen storage facility, bolstering the UK’s energy security, delivering a net zero electricity system by 2035, decarbonising the UK’s industrial clusters, such as the Humber region by 2040, and helping the UK economy by returning to being a net exporter of energy.
“In the short term we think Rough can help our energy system by storing natural gas when there is a surplus and producing this gas when the country needs it during cold snaps and peak demand. Rough is not a silver bullet for energy security, but it is a key part of a range of steps which can be taken to help the UK this winter.”
Note.
- Effectively, in the short term, Rough is a store for gas to help us through the winter.
- In the long-term, Rough will be turned into the world’s largest gas storage facility.
- It will be able to store both methane (natural gas) and hydrogen.
Having worked with project managers on complex oil and gas platforms and chemical plants, I wouldn’t be surprised to find, that when the design of this facility is released, it will be something special.
Centrica certainly seem to have upgraded Rough to be able to play a significant short term role this winter and they also seem to have developed a plan to give it a significant long-term role in the storage of hydrogen.
Aldbrough Gas Storage
A few miles up the coast is SSE’s and Equinor’s Aldbrough Gas Storage, which is being developed in salt caverns to hold natural gas and hydrogen.
Blending Of Hydrogen And Natural Gas
I believe that we’ll see a lot of blending of hydrogen and natural gas.
- Up to 20 % of hydrogen can be blended, without the need to change appliances, boilers and processes.
- This cuts carbon dioxide emissions.
I wrote about this in a post called HyDeploy.
It might be convenient to store hydrogen in Aldbrough and natural gas in Rough, so that customers could have the blend of gas they needed.
With two large gas stores for hydrogen under development, the HumberZero cluster is on its way.
National Grid’s North Sea Link Strengthens Electricity Supply And Repays Its Carbon Cost In Just Six Months
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from National Grid.
These are three bullet points from the press release.
- World’s longest subsea electricity cable has been in operation since Oct 2021.
- 5.7 terawatt (TWh) hours of clean power have been shared between GB and Norway, strengthening security of supply for consumers in both countries.
- It has saved 800,000 tonnes of carbon in the first year, paying off its carbon cost after only six months of operation.
This must surely be considered a good start.
These two paragraphs describe the operation in the first year.
During its first year of operation, the link has imported 4.6 TWh of clean electricity – enough to power 1.5 million British homes for a year.
North Sea Link has also exported 1.1 TWh to Norway, demonstrating the vital role that interconnectors play in strengthening energy security and maximising the benefits of clean energy sources for consumers across the UK and Europe.
In The Monster In The Mountains That Could Save Europe’s Winter, I describe what makes the North Sea Link so important.
It gives the UK access to the Norwegian Bank Of Electricity or Ulla-Førre, which is a complex of five hydroelectric power stations and a massive lake in the Norwegian mountains to the East of Stavanger.
- The power stations have a total generating capacity of 2.1 GW.
- Lake Blåsjø is able to hold enough water to generate 7800 GWh of electricity.
- Ulla-Førre can also supply electricity to Germany, through the 1.4 GW NordLink.
If Ulla-Førre has a problem, it is that if Norwegian weather is dry, the filling of Lake Blåsjø could be difficult, which is where the interconnector comes into its own, as excess UK wind power or the 1,185 MW Hartlepool nuclear power station, can be used to send electricity to Norway for storage.
In An Update To Will We Run Out Of Power This Winter?, I predicted we will add the following capacity to our renewable generation in the next three years.
- 2023 – 2925 MW
- 3024 – 3726 MW
- 2025 – 6476 MW
This is a total of 13,127 MW.
As a Control Engineer, I can see the following happening.
- Several of the UK’s gas-fired power stations will be mothballed.
- Some of the UK’s gas-fired power stations will be fitted with advanced control systems so they can supply more precise amounts of electricity.
- Some UK electricity is stored in Ulla-Førre for onward sale to Germany.
- Some UK electricity is stored in Ulla-Førre for withdrawal back to the UK, when needed.
One of Ulla-Førre’s main tasks could be to ensure that no UK electricity is wasted.
Conclusion
With all these wind generated electricity and electricity transfers, the Crown Estate, National Grid and the Treasury should be coining it.
The Germans are already building the 1.4 GW NeuConnect between the Isle of Grain and Wilhelmshaven to import more electricity.
But I do believe that another interconnector will be needed.
National Grid Installs LineVision Sensors To Expand The Capacity Of Existing Power Lines
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from National Grid.
These are four bullet points from the press release.
- LineVision’s Dynamic Line Rating (DLR) technology trialled for first time in Great Britain following successful deployment on National Grid’s electricity networks in the US.
- The sensors and data analytics platform will highlight spare capacity on overhead power lines allowing for the integration of more renewable power.
- Technology has the potential to unlock 0.6GW of additional capacity, enough to power more than 500,000 homes and save £1.4 million in network operating costs per year based on the results from the US networks.
- Combined with the construction of new infrastructure, the innovative technology forms part of National Grid’s work to upgrade and adapt the electricity network to meet increased demand and help deliver a net zero grid.
In some ways this seems like the sort of story, that could be filed under Too-Good-To-Be-True.
But as a Graduate Control Engineer, I’m willing to give National Grid and LineVision the benefit of the doubt.
- It appears to be technology proven in the United States.
- That experience should feed over, once the manuals are translated into the dual English-American form of English.
- I suspect that applying this technology to interconnectors could increase their capacity.
- I also think that as we add more storage, power sources or interconnectors to our electricity network, this will open up more savings.
- As the UK power network gets more complicated, the system should come into its own.
This is an excellent decision by National Grid.
Groundbreaking Green Energy Hub Planned For Former Thorpe Marsh Power Station Site
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from the Banks Group.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Outline plans are set to be revealed for the creation of a groundbreaking green energy hub at the former Thorpe Marsh power station site near Doncaster.
Other details include.
- The 1 GW Thorpe March coal-fired power station closed in 1994 and was demolished in 2012.
- The project would take advantage of the site’s existing 1,450MW connection to the National Grid.
- The storage capacity will be 2.8 GWh.
- The site is a a 65-hectare area of land to the west of the village of Barnby Dun.
It is thought to be the largest battery energy storage system currently being planned in the UK, and one of the largest anywhere in the world.
T have a few thoughts.
The Site At Barnby Dun
This Google Map shows the site to the West of Barnby Dun.
Note.
- The power station site is indicated by the six cooling towers.
- The Doncaster and Hull railway line runs across the map to the North of the cooling towers.
- The cooling towers were demolished in 2012, according to Wikipedia.
- More recent images on the web show a cleared site, with six concrete circles, where the towers once stood.
- There is a sub-station to the South of the former power station.
- The River Don runs North-South on the map.
- Barnby Dun is the village to the East of the River Don.
Because of the towers, I’m unsure of the date of the map. Are Google’s maps ten years old?
The site certainly has the three most important things; location, location and location.
I suspect too, that large pieces of equipment could be floated in by barge.
The Type Of Storage
The press release just talks of a 2.8 GWh battery, but what type is it?
Lithium-Ion
This section in Wikipedia gives details of the world’s largest lithium-ion grid batteries.
- At 2.8 GWh the Thorpe Marsh battery would be bigger than any lithium-ion batteries, that are currently in operation, anywhere in the world.
- It would also be the third largest lithium-ion battery in the world, under development.
- It’s up there with a smaller-scale pumped storage hydro-electric power station like Ffestiniog power station.
I suspect that this battery might not be lithium-ion but one of the newer technologies.
Gravitricity
I suspect that a Gravitricity battery would be too small.
Highview Power
On the Projects page of the Highview Power web site, there is a list of their UK projects.
One project is headlined Yorkshire, UK and it is described like this.
Highview Power’s second commercial renewable energy power station in the UK is a 200MW/2.5GWh facility in Yorkshire. This is the first of 18 sites for UK wide deployment strategically located to benefit from the existing transmission infrastructure.
Could this 2.5 GWh project be the 2.8 GWh battery planned for Thorpe Marsh?
300 MWh is not a big difference between friends.
A Meeting About The Power Station
This article on the Doncaster Free Press is entitled Plans For Former Thorpe Marsh Power Station To Be Turned Into Green Energy Hub.
The article gives a lot of useful information and says this about the meeting.
The launch of the plan will take place with a surgery in Barnby Dun Parish Hall, Wednesday 2 November, 2pm-7:30pm.
I shall be going to have a look on the 2nd. Would anybody care to join me?
The article does have an artists’s impression of the battery, but it is a stock image of a series of lithium-ion batteries, that came from the Banks Group press release.
New South Wales Plans Three Batteries
This article on Energy Storage News is entitled Shell Battery Project In New South Wales Would Add 1GWh Energy Storage To Growing Market.
The three batteries are.
- Shell – 500MW/1,000MWh BESS project in Wellington, in Central West NSW.
- Waratah Super Battery 700MW/1,400MWh transmission system “shock absorber”
- A proposed 500MW/2,000 MWh BESS from energy generator-retailer EnergyAustralia.
Note.
- All batteries appear to be lithium ion.
- This gives a total output of 1.7 GW and a total storage capacity of 4.4 GWh.
- The NSW government is targeting 12GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.
- 3 GW of utility-scale wind and solar in development, construction, or already in operation, in the state.
The state seems to be making a good start.
Should Hospitals Be The Power Backup Locations?
I was reading an article in The Times about how protestors were blocking roads in Central London and they’re inadvertently stopped an ambulance.
So this question occurred to me. Why I don’t know, but my mind has always jumped about and put thoughts together?
Consider.
- The latest generation of energy storage that could be used to back up the grid are coming down in physical size.
- Hospitals have complex power systems, as they use a lot of electricity.
- Hospitals need emergency power backup.
- Because of their high electrical use, hospitals will have a high capacity connection to the National Grid.
- Some modern treatments need a lot of electricity.
- Will ambulances be battery-powered and will need to be charged up, whilst delivering patients?
- Many bus routes terminate at the local hospital, so if the buses are battery-powered, these could be charged as well.
As an Electrical and Control Engineer, I feel that to put a town, city or are’s back-up battery at the hospital would be a sensible idea.
Hospitals should be designed to be health, energy and transport hubs for their communities.
The Monster In The Mountains That Could Save Europe’s Winter
Ulla-Førre is a complex of five hydroelectric power stations and a massive lake in the Norwegian mountains to the East of Stavanger.
- The power stations have a total generating capacity of 2.1 GW.
- Lake Blåsjø is able to hold enough water to generate 7800 GWh of electricity.
- The complex is at the Norwegian end of the North Sea Link to Blyth in England.
This YouTube video from Statkraft, explains how Ulla-Førre was built.
I have some further explanation and thoughts.
What Is The Operating Philosophy Of The North Sea Link?
This press release from National Grid says this.
The Norwegian power generation is sourced from hydropower plants connected to large reservoirs, which can respond faster to fluctuations in demand compared to other major generation technologies. However, as the water level in reservoirs is subject to weather conditions, production varies throughout seasons and years.
When wind generation is high and electricity demand low in Britain, NSL will enable renewable power to be exported from the UK, conserving water in Norway’s reservoirs. When demand is high in Britain and there is low wind generation, hydro power can be imported from Norway, helping to ensure secure, affordable and sustainable electricity supplies for UK consumers.
It almost seems to me, that the North Sea Link is part of a massive pumped-storage system, where we can bank some of our wind-generated electricity in Norway and draw it out when we need it.
Suppose There Is No Wind In The UK And Norway’s Giant Reservoirs Need Filling?
We could always throw on a substitute, which is the 1,185 MW Hartlepool nuclear power station.
- Unfortunately, this will close in 2024.
- Wikipedia indicates that Hartlepool’s closure has been on and off several years, so I don’t think it will be delayed again.
- A new station probably couldn’t be commissioned until 2029, at the earliest.
But over the next few years these wind farms will be connected to the North-East.
- Sofia wind farm should commission the 1.4 GW Phase 1, which connects to Teesside in 2023.
- Dogger Bank wind farm should commission 3.6 GW, which connects to Teesside and Humberside in 2025.
- The 4.1 GW Berwick Bank wind farm will have a second connection to Blyth by 2030. Say 2 GW!
There’s more than enough wind there to fill up Norway’s reservoirs and replace Hartlepool nuclear station.
Will Ulla-Førre Be Expanded?
It does sound to me that the video does imply that Ulla-Førre could be expanded.
Will Norwegian Pumped Storage Hydro Help Us Through The Winter?
In UK To Norway Sub-Sea Green Power Cable Operational, I discussed the North Sea Link interconnector to Norway.
The North Sea Link is no ordinary interconnector, as it is a lot more than a 1.4 GW cable linking the electricity grids of the UK and Norway.
- At the UK end, there is an increasing amount of wind power. The UK has added 3.5 GW in 2022.
- At the Norway end, there is the 2.1 GW Ulla-Førre hydropower complex.
- The water to generate electricity at Ulla-Førre comes from the artificial Lake Blåsjø, which contains enough water to generate 7.8 TWh of electricity.
- The storage capacity at Ulla-Førre is 857 times greater than that at the UK’s largest pumped storage hydroelectric power station at Dinorwig in North Wales.
- The power complex consists of five power stations and some can also be used as a pump powered by UK electricity to fill Lake Blåsjø with water.
Effectively, the North Sea Link, the Ulla-Førre power complex and Lake Blåsjø are a giant pumped storage hydro battery, that can either be filled by Norwegian precipitation and water flows or by using surplus UK electricity, through the North Sea Link, which opened a year ago.
If the Norwegian precipitation goes on strike, the only way to fill Lake Blåsjø is to use surplus UK power, which I suspect will be British wind and nuclear in the middle of the night!
But then I thought we will be short of electricity this winter.
- I suspect we will be at times, but then at others there will be a surplus.
- So the surplus will be pumped to Norway to top up the reservoir at Lake Blåsjø.
- When we are short of electricity, the Norwegians will turn water back into electricity and send it back through the North Sea Link.
It will be more sophisticated than that, but basically, I believe it provides us with the electricity we need, at the times, when we need it.
I wouldn’t be surprised to be told, that we’ve been squirreling away overnight wind energy to Norway over the last few months.
I have written more about Ulla-Førre in The Monster In The Mountains That Could Save Europe’s Winter.
It includes a video about the building of the complex.
The Belgians Go Large
This press release from Elia Group is entitled Elia Presents Its Plans For An Energy Island, Which Will Be Called The Princess Elisabeth Island.
These two paragraphs outline the project.
In the presence of federal ministers Tinne Van der Straeten (Energy) and Vincent Van Quickenborne (North Sea), system operator Elia has presented its draft plans for what will be the world’s first artificial energy island.
The Princess Elisabeth Island will be located almost 45 km off the Belgian coast and will serve as the link between the offshore wind farms in the second offshore wind zone (which will have a maximum capacity of 3.5 GW) and its onshore high-voltage grid. The energy island will also be the first building block of a European offshore electricity grid that will serve as a central hub for new interconnectors with the UK and Denmark. The island is an innovative tour de force that once again puts Belgium on the map as a pioneer in offshore energy.
Note, that Princess Elisabeth is the heir apparent to the Belgian throne.
I have some thoughts.
Will The Wind Turbines Float Or Have Fixed Foundations?
Consider.
- 3.5 GW of wind farms will probably need around 220 wind turbines.
- Most of the large wind farms in the seas around the UK, that are below about 50 miles from the shore are on fixed foundations.
- The seas around East Anglia and Belgium are probably fairly similar.
I suspect that using today’s technology, the turbines will have fixed foundations.
But floats with two or more turbines , that generate more electricity per square kilometre may be developed.
Will Hydrogen Be Generated On The Island?
This could happen and I don’t see why not.
Tankers could even dock on the island to transport the hydrogen.
Could The Island Service Floating Wind Turbines?
All that is needed, is sufficient depth of water and a large crane.
It is a possibility!
Will There Be A UK Interconnector To Princess Elisabeth Island?
The press release says this.
The energy island will also be the first building block of a European offshore electricity grid that will serve as a central hub for new interconnectors with the UK and Denmark.
There could be interconnectors all over the North Sea linking wind farms and energy islands to the UK, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Norway.
We’d all be in it together.
Conclusion
This is a very ambitious project.
Rolls-Royce And SOWITEC Cooperate On Power-To-X Projects
The title of this post, is the same of that of this press release from Rolls-Royce.
The press release starts with these two bullet points.
- Target: up to 500 MW electrolysis capacity for power-to-X projects
- Production of green hydrogen and e-fuels for shipping, aviation, mining, agriculture, data centers
In Rolls-Royce Makes Duisburg Container Terminal Climate Neutral With MTU Hydrogen Technology, I wrote how Rolls-Royce were building a carbon-neutral energy supply for the port.
This Rolls-Royce graphic illustrates the project.
It looks like SOWITEC would be the sort of company to install the decentralised renewables for this project.
Rolls-Royce seem to be collecting the technology to build complex projects like the power supply for the Duisburg Container Terminal, either by acquisition or negotiating friendly links.
But I do think, that Rolls-Royce possibly need two items for a complete portfolio.
A factory with a large capacity to build electrolysers. The press release says they need 500 MW by 2028 or nearly 100 MW per year.
Some form of GWh-sized energy storage. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rolls-Royce do a deal with an energy storage company.
The Anonymous Widower 