Canada’s First Hybrid Electric Gas Turbine
Funded through Call #3: Industry Efficiency in 2018, ENMAX installed Canada’s first hybrid electric gas turbine (EGT) at its Alberta-based Crossfield Energy Centre. The project demonstrated the feasibility and benefits of this technology, paving the way for future adoption and deployment of similar systems in Alberta’s electricity industry.
The hybrid EGT is a hybrid technology that combines a battery energy storage system (BESS) with a gas turbine at a natural gas plant used to supply peaking power on the grid. This project enabled the natural-gas-fueled Crossfield Unit 3 generating resource to provide GHG‐free spinning reserve, which are immediately available power reserves that can be dispatched to the grid within seconds. Essentially, the BESS system prevents the need for the gas plant to always be “idling” – when the grid needs peaking power, it can leverage the BESS system for a short period of time while the gas plant starts up. This reduces the need for the gas turbine to operate continuously at a high level, resulting in lower emissions during periods of low demand or grid stability. Completed in 2021, no other fossil‐fueled power plant in the country offers spinning reserve without producing greenhouse gases (GHG); but this could easily be deployed to peaker plants across Alberta and the world. The innovation will eliminate an estimated 45,000 tonnes of GHG emissions annually, the equivalent of taking 10,000 cars off the road.
Overcoming Technology and Covid-19 Barriers
The primary learnings of the project stem from the challenges of installing new battery technologies at existing gas turbine power stations and deploying new technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project experienced ferro-resonance (non-linear resonance) which can cause a voltage transformer to eventually overheat or degrade due to high voltages and currents. Two engineering fixes were installed to mitigate the ferro-resonance; extra burden was added to the voltage transformer circuit for dampening, and a neutral grounding transformer package was installed to add a high resistance path to ground. Additionally, because of the evolving Covid-19 restrictions at the time, it was often not possible for international subject matter experts to be on site and support construction as planned. As a result, ENMAX worked to complete many tasks virtually whereby the subject matter expert guided a local resource through the completion of the task, and whenever possible Canadian subject matter experts were substituted. This process, while unanticipated and less efficient than planned, also had unintended positive impacts, as it provided an opportunity for local resources to learn and perform more of the detailed tasks related to the inner workings of the EGT.
What’s next?
The technology is fully derisked and can be considered commercialized. The electricity market continues to evolve, and there may still be cost barriers to deploying storage technology at scale without incentives. From a technical perspective, however, the project successfully advanced the integrated hybrid gas turbine concept in Alberta and achieved meaningful and lasting GHG reductions. With the solution now validated, future gas turbine hybridization projects can proceed commercially. As ENMAX gains more operational experience with the EGT at Crossfield, further opportunities will be explored to deploy the technology across ENMAX’s fleet.