Austin April 2013 Luncheon
"Pushing ERCOT's Gas Fleet to Go Further: Recovering Summer's Lost Megawatts & Integrating Renewables with Generation Storage for Gas Turbines"
ERCOT is currently discussing whether to include Generation Storage for Wholesale Load Treatment like all other forms of energy storage that store and replace grid power. Doing so would allow gas turbine operators the ability to contribute directly to wind integration by using night wind for the following day’s peak power needs. It could also encourage more adoption, helping to provide more reliable power for ERCOT, particularly during summer peak hours. Our speaker, Tom Pierson, will discuss Generation Storage projects currently operating in ERCOT.
ERCOT capacity is just over 50% gas powered, and temperatures near the 90s and into the 100s several months of the year. When outside temperatures reach the 90s, the gas fleet across ERCOT realizes a decrease in gas-fired power plant capacity of 10%, rising with rising temperatures (as much as 20%). On average, ERCOT loses more than 2,500 MWs every summer due to high temperatures and its impact on gas turbines. Furthermore, with increased wind penetration, ERCOT’s grid is maturing to be more flexible and responsive to intermittent generation. Existing resources become more valuable when they are able to provide stronger ancillary services, namely flexible generation, for the maturing grid.
Generation Storage can be installed through retrofits to existing gas assets, or installed with new gas plant developments to recover the inherent lost megawatts associated with increased temperatures, and to provide gas turbine operators access to more ancillary services through increased flexible generation. Generation Storage, formerly known as Turbine Inlet Chilling with Thermal Energy Storage, combines two tried and tested technologies into one seamless solution for gas turbines. Night time or station power is used to chill water. The chilled water is stored in a thermal energy storage tank for use the following day during peak hours. The chilled water is released from the tank according to grid need to be sent through the filter house for inlet air chilling. Chilled inlet air increases the mass flow rate of the turbine, allowing for more megawatts to be generated. With a fully ‘charged’ thermal energy storage tank, an operator can increase or decrease the plant’s output instantaneously through simply regulating the pump flow out of the tank, providing an additional 10-20% of the plant’s capacity in flexible power.
Tom Pierson is Founder and C.T.O. of TAS Energy, a leading clean energy manufacturer of high-efficiency modular energy plants serving the global Power Generation, Renewable Energy, Mission Critical and Industrial Cooling industries. TAS is the originator and global leader in producing additional peaking power from gas turbine power plants through Turbine Inlet Cooling (TIC) which Tom pioneered by completing the world’s first TIC project in the 1980s. This concept was later expanded into Generation Storage which utilizes off-peak grid power that can be stored and used to generate additional flexible peaking power to firm up the variable generation associated with Renewable generation. Tom and TAS have expanded the modular concept to utilize heat from geothermal and from waste heat sources and converting this low-grade heat energy directly into electrical power through patented supercritical Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) modular power plants which are the most efficient in the industry.
Tom received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arkansas. He is a member of ASME, ASHRAE, U.S. Green Building Council, is a founder and past Chairman of the Turbine Inlet Cooling Association (TICA), and has been on the Boards of the International District Energy Association (IDEA) and the U.S. Clean Heat and Power Association (USCHPA). Tom & TAS have twice received the Presidents “E-Award”, the highest award offered by the US government for Export Excellence. Tom was recently named Renewable Energy Innovator of the Year for 2011 by the Association of Energy Engineers. Mr. Pierson holds (9) U.S. Patents related to high efficiency Central Plant designs, Turbine Inlet Cooling, Integrated Energy Systems and ORC power cycles and he remains active in the corporate development of new technologies related to renewable energy, modular utilities, systems optimization and performance measurement & verification. Tom and his wife, Dana have three children and reside in Sugar Land, Texas.