SIEMENS ENERGY: Problem-Solving Siemens Energy Nurtures Loaded Project Pipeline

The energy transition comes from blending science, technology, innovation, and a desire for sustainability that outweighs the want for short-term profits. It requires input from all stakeholders – government, general public, and business. With regulation, progress is slow. Without demand from people, there is no supply. And without money and expertise from business, there is little pioneering thinking.

True transformation comes with political will driven by the public, backed by business that enjoys long-term certainty. This is where global powerhouses can move mountains.

“We are committed to supporting the energy transition,” says Simona Rossetti, Senior VP at Siemens Energy. “Digitalisation is supporting decarbonisation, and we have real examples of that. AI and digital solutions are critical in the energy business.”

An important role player in global electrification, Siemens Energy has vast experience. The company’s knowledge goes from generation to transmission and across the network.

Rossetti, an industry veteran with decades of understanding and a Masters Degree in electrical engineering, tells Energy Focus that Siemens Energy is busy with significant projects all over the world, and in her geography of Europe and Africa, digitalisation and automation are moving the energy transition along quickly.

“We are very diverse and that allows us to be very innovative,” she says, highlighting the skills in the team, and complex but successful projects in Germany, Iceland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria, Turkey, the UK, China and South Africa.

SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS

In China, a pilot project was completed aiming to address the energy trilemma: affordability, reliability and sustainability. Hotel and hospitality business, Songtsam Group, engaged Siemens Energy to design a hotel to be low-carbon from the ground up. Siemens Energy utilised its Omnivise T3000 Hybrid Control System – a specially designed system that takes energy from various sources, storing and implementing in the right place at the right time.  The Songtsam Basomtso Linka hotel is now open to technology from other OEMs and a wide range of renewable energy inputs. Already, the hotel uses photovoltaic panels and heat pumps, generating enough power for guest rooms and shared facilities. On top of that, the system powers molecular sieve oxygen generators for the production of oxygen, required at such altitude.Paired with a wider microgrid solution, although higher in initial capital outlay, the system will have significant cost benefits in the longer-term, while addressing the core challenge of the energy trilemma.

Two major projects in Germany have demonstrated the company’s wide range of solutions as well as adaptability when it comes to searching for innovative solutions to very unique problems.

In Erfurt in central Germany, Siemens Energy worked with SWE Energie GmbH to upgrade control systems to the latest Omnivise T3000 system. Across the heat and power plant, and the combined cycle power plant in the city’s east, efficiency improvements were achieved saving 180,000 tons of CO₂ annually. Upgrade of the system allows SWE to include more and more renewable energy to its overall system as capacity comes online while protecting assets and feeding information easily into stakeholder workflows.

In Essen, at the Kraftwerks-Simulator-Gesellschaft (KSG), power producer GKS-Gemeinschaftskraftwerk Schweinfurt GmbH wanted to create training and development environments for employees but with high levels of detail. Again, decarbonisation through digitalisation is the focus through the use of the Omnivise T3000. The plant uses coal as its primary input, delivering power and heat. There is also a waste-to-energy plant that complements the wider system. With more than 4000 control system projects around the world, this is yet another example of the range of success that comes with this amazing piece of control equipment.

Also in Germany, in the city of Mannheim – between Stuttgart and Frankfurt – Siemens Energy was recently busy with an exciting heat pump project that use Rhine water as a heat source to warm thousands of homes. Reducing the demand on coal from the local power plant, the new heat pump can supply 20MWt of thermal energy, saving 10,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year. “It reduces the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere by a big number, and that is something we are proud of,” says Rossetti. “Technology is Siemens Energy at its core, and the heat pumps are manufactured at our factory in Sweden.”

Siemens Energy provided control system and electrical infrastructure for a solar project in Portugal. The High Performance Solar 2 project sees a concentrated solar panel system supported by a molten salt storage infrastructure, generating heat but at reduced cost. The Omnivise 3000 was implemented, prepped for future upgrades. Power plants using the technology from the High Performance Solar 2 project can reduce production costs by up to 20%.

“The majority of problems we see with the injection of green energy to the grid is the stabilisation. It is our job to assist in the expansion of the grid – the amount of new green energy we see coming online is immense and we don’t have the capacity to bring it on. It is vital to maintain 50Hz while keeping stability and resilience in the grid,” Rossetti explains.

GRID STABILITY

Grid support in Iceland has seen Siemens Energy busy with a project at the geothermal power plant – the Krafla Power Station in the country’s north. Operated by national power company, Landsvirkjun, the plant has installed capacity of 60MW and generates 500 Gwh/y from its site in the crater of the Krafla volcano.

Vital for the Icelandic grid, the plant was recently upgraded to include state-of-the-art technology. Siemens Energy was on hand to implement the Omnivise T3000 control system, this time including turbine governor, hydraulics, monitoring, and instrumentation, as well as generator electrical equipment. As the project rolled on, more scope was added and the control system for the MHI DEH turbines was updated. Now, Krafla is considered one of the most efficient turbines in the country.

“In Iceland, we are enjoying our work with geothermal plants, working on control systems and digitisation. We are also looking at using the heat for use in district heating. Again, the goal is to eliminate CO₂ and decarbonise,” says Rossetti.

“Across all projects, we are doing different things. We offer the complete statistical analysis system process and project execution and service for automation and controls that are found in power plants.

“In grid technology and services – my new area of responsibility – it is everything from the substation, transformer, switchgear all the way to supporting customers to get on the grid, and then make the grid resilient and stable. Again, this is critical in the energy transition.”

In South Africa, where the energy crisis has been first and foremost in people’s minds for a number of years after national utility Eskom began implementing rolling blackouts (known as loadshedding), alternative solutions have been sought. The city of Cape Town even has a widely hailed scheme through which it can purchase surplus energy from private producers who might operate rooftop solar installations.

Hoping to assist, Siemens Energy has been busy working on control and electrification technologies on a concentrated solar project in the country’s Northern Cape. The Ilanga 100MW site runs on Siemens Energy steam turbines. Owned in part by local communities, Ilanga and similar projects have exclusive PPAs with Eskom, helping to solve the national challenge, creating employment, and addressing sustainability in the energy arena in a country dominated by coal power generation.

“We take care of many power producers and owners of offshore wind farms, solar installations, geothermal plants, and much more. We handle automation and electrical control systems, and it is an exciting market,” says Rossetti.

Each project is different, and this requires a flexible and nimble approach to projects. This was, in part, a driver of brining Rossetti onboard. She has the mindset and experience required to deliver at local level, regional level and headquarter level. She understands that the transition comes from the ground up, and sees the nuances between different companies and areas. Ultimately, she is concerned only with using technology to accelerate change.

“We support the energy transition and we drive decarbonisation – this is our job,” she says.