By Ella Teperi, General Manager, Market & Financial Analysis, Decarbonization Services at Wärtsilä Energy shares insights on “Triple win” on how Africa’s industrials can decarbonize, lower energy costs and increase reliability all at the same time. 

In African countries, particularly those with a well-developed industrial sector, a significant portion of energy production may come from the industry’s own power plants. This is especially true in countries where the reliability of the grid is low, and industries rely on self-generated power to ensure a stable energy supply. In this article, we are offering insights into our approach in supporting energy-intensive industries to optimize the use of renewable energy and reach their decarbonization objectives.

Energy-intensive businesses are under great pressure to decrease CO2 emissions as they continue to compete in the global marketplace. Wärtsilä knows more about this than most: many of our mining and industrial partners in Africa operate their own microgrids, either from choice or necessity. They want to deploy renewables but need to do it efficiently and economically. Managing power intermittency and dispatchability is not a simple task, and most businesses struggle to make the most of hybrid power configurations. We will demonstrate how renewable balancing can not only reduce the CO2 emissions of operations, but also ensure overall system reliability and lower the cost of electricity going forward.

Making the most of your assets

Each industrial site is unique, there is no such thing as one size fits all when it comes to decarbonization. There is a whole range of constraints, conditions and variables that are specific to each operation, site, and facility. And yet, there is one central question that everyone must answer to solve the decarbonization challenge: how can I maximize the integration of renewable energy whilst ensuring reliability of supply and competitive energy costs?

In Africa, just like anywhere else, energy-intensive businesses are under great pressure to decrease CO2 emissions as they continue to compete in the global marketplace.

When adding renewables and intermittency into grids, managing the increased complexity that inevitably ensues in a smart way becomes critical. Avoiding curtailment, managing reserves, and optimizing the fuel consumption of thermal assets are the key elements that will get you further along the decarbonization process. At an early stage, advanced power system modeling will help understand the impact of different operational profiles, figure out the optimal power generation strategies and leverage the benefits of dispatch optimization.

Optimizing your energy generation strategy

The optimal power generation strategy must reconcile three key objectives that are often considered contradictory. The first goal is to maximize renewable energy generation to lower CO2 emissions.

This is why smart decarbonisation strategies involve a holistic view over the entire microgrid, optimizing the mix of renewable energy for baseload power, backed by energy storage and balancing engine technologies for dispatchable power.

The second is to guarantee that the supply of power is steady and reliable. Thirdly, to ensure that the total system cost remains competitive. Fail to achieve any of these goals, and your entire plan will tumble.

This is why smart decarbonization strategies involve a holistic view over the entire microgrid, optimizing the mix of renewable energy for baseload power, backed by energy storage and balancing engine technologies for dispatchable power.

While wind and solar power can offer emission-free energy at lower costs than fossil fuels, their intermittent nature adds uncertainty into the system. Adding renewables to your asset fleet will therefore require changing the way power balance is managed in order to ensure reliability, minimize the curtailment of renewables, and reduce the fuel consumption of thermal assets. Flexible power must be available to ramp production up or down at the same rate that wind or solar production fluctuates, but also to match the fluctuating energy demand in real time.

Flexible engine power plants and energy storage systems (ESS) can work together to support renewables integration. Both energy assets can react quickly and efficiently cope with multiple daily starts and stops. ESS ramps up extremely quickly, while engine power plants generate flexible, reliable power also during periods with low renewable generation and offer the advantage of being able to run on different fuels, from natural gas and liquid fuels or biofuels today, to locally produced hydrogen and its derivatives tomorrow as they become competitive and broadly available.

These cover decarbonisation services, future-fuel enabled balancing power plants, hybrid solutions, energy storage and optimisation technology, including the GEMS Digital Energy Platform.

Thanks to this multi-fuel capability, not only do engine power plants provide a great hedge against fuel supply risk, but they are also the ultimate “future-proof” technology for decarbonization. Gas engines can already run with 25 per cent hydrogen blend without major modifications. We anticipate that a few years from now engines will be capable of running entirely on green fuels like hydrogen to reach 100 per cent renewables and net-zero.

An intelligent energy management system (EMS) enables seamless operation of any mix of power assets. Wärtsilä’s state-of-the-art GEMS Digital Energy Platform utilizes real-time data, renewable forecasts as well as machine learning algorithms, to optimize the dispatch of dynamic generation assets with speed, instead of applying a rigid rule-based model. GEMS’ optimization and control capabilities enable reliability, minimized emissions, and reduced costs.

Decarbonization is a journey not a destination
 For companies to remain competitive, their decarbonization process must be based upon three pillars: emission reduction, competitive cost, and reliability. To get this done, the journey to net-zero for mining and industrial businesses in Africa cannot rely on a single solution. It is a long-term, future-proof plan that involves a data-driven management of energy assets.

 

More on Wartsila Energy

Wärtsilä Energy leads the transition towards a 100 per cent renewable energy future. We help our partners to accelerate their decarbonization journeys through our market-leading technologies and power system modeling expertise. These cover decarbonization services, future-fuel enabled balancing power plants, hybrid solutions, energy storage and optimization technology, including the GEMS Digital Energy Platform. Wärtsilä Energy’s lifecycle services are designed to increase efficiency, promote reliability and guarantee operational performance. Our track record comprises 79 GW of power plant capacity and 115 energy storage systems delivered to 180 countries around the world.