vgbe energy journal 11 (2022) - International Journal for Generation and Storage of Electricity and Heat

Steam turbines and steam turbine
operation – A topical issue
Dear readers,
At the beginning of 2020 we were all confronted with an event
unknown to us - a pandemic. With a heavy heart we decided to
postpone the symposium “Steam turbines and steam turbine operation”,
originally planned for 2020, to 2021.
But we had done the maths without the host. Even in 2021, the
pandemic-related restrictions did not allow us to hold such an
event in a secure manner.
However, the crash course we all took in the use and further development
of online formats offered us the opportunity to try our
hand at an online format for the symposium in 2021. And I think
with success.
However, even though we will not want to and will not be able
to permanently do without the digitalisation facilitations we have
come to love in the spatial and temporal sense in the future.
An event like the Steam Turbine Conference lives not only from
the technical content, but in a special way from the interpersonal
contacts, from networking and the shared experience.
In this respect, it was particularly pleasing that the “Steam Turbines
and Steam Turbine Operation 2022” symposium could take
place as an attendance event in Cologne.
Approximately 260 participants attended the event, who were
able to obtain information about products and services from 37
exhibitors at the trade exhibition.
Of course, the lectures at the symposium play a central role. Here
the main topics were:
––
Repair options and measures for steam turbines
on steam turbines
––
Numerical analyses and reverse engineering
––
Retrofits and possibilities for plant optimisation
––
Steam quality and analysis
––
Government regulations on the energy market
(Grid Code, Energy Tax Act)
Since the symposium in June, the topic of government requirements
on the energy market has once again taken on a new significance.
The ambitious climate protection goals that have been set are
to be achieved through increasingly stringent implementation
of the energy turnaround and decarbonisation by industry and
society.
The actual implementation of the goals through the nuclear and
coal phase-out, the expansion of renewable energies, energy storage
and gas-fired generation as well as through the entry into
the hydrogen economy would be challenge enough for all energy
plant manufacturers and operators.
The nuclear phase-out and the implementation of the proposals of
the Commission “Growth, Structural Change and Employment” on
the coal phase-out into concrete legislation had already unfolded
their corresponding effects on the industry, both for operators and
for manufacturers and service providers.
In addition to the decisions to decommission power plants, various
power plants were also kept on standby to ensure security of
supply.
Since the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine,
security of supply has now taken on another, previously underestimated
dimension.
Up to this point, the topic was discussed more in the technical
framework between redispatch and system stability and was almost
postulated as a given.
Now the fatal import dependency of the EU - and especially Germany
- on natural gas, coal and crude oil has hit the collective
consciousness, and with it the desire for self-sufficiency from Russian
energy supplies.
Apart from questions such as how to deal with the Schwedt refinery
and its importance for the fuel supply in north-eastern Germany,
securing the gas supply is the greatest challenge for Germany
and Europe.
Around 50 % of natural gas consumption in Germany was purchased
from Russia in 2021. That is approx. 55 billion m 3 . This corresponded
to the maximum transport capacity of Nord Stream I.
Work is feverishly underway to replace this with LNG, but the
quantities required pose a challenge in any case. Whether it will
be possible to build a complex chemical-processing infrastructure
on a greenfield site (or rather in the Wadden Sea) in Germany
within a very short time remains to be seen, given the approval
and construction times for other projects. Four sites have now
been selected and work is underway.
Building the energy system of the future based on electricity, heat
and hydrogen from renewable generation in combination with energy
storage and intelligent consumption remains a top priority.
In this context, the use of natural gas for power generation was
and is intended to have an appropriate bridging function.
However, things sometimes develop differently than one thinks,
and current events are shaking up this adjustment process.
In any case, politicians have recognised the point of secure generation.
On 7 July 2022, the Deutscher Bundestag passed the Act on
the Provision of Replacement Power Plants.
More and more power plant units are being brought back into continuous
operation from the grid reserve.
Making a plant from the reserve fit for longer continuous operation
and operating it in the shortest possible time would be a challenge
even in times when there is no shortage of personnel or materials.
Ingenuity and unconventional solutions are needed here.
There is certainly no shortage of topics for future joint work in
vgbe energy e.V..
Hartmut Strangfeld
Dipl.-Ing., RWE Power AG, Grevenbroich
Chair of the
Technical Committee “Steam Turbines”
at vgbe energy e.V.
vgbe energy journal 11 · 2022 | 1