ADWEC 2008 Statement of Future Capacity Requirements 2008 ...

RSB Approved Version- 4 th August 2008
It is planned that supporting back-up fuel (natural gas) will be used by MASDAR to
increase the solar plants’ output during the afternoon hours, when electricity demand
is at its highest. It is expected however that amount of gas that will be available to
MASDAR to utilise as back-up fuel will be insufficient to produce electricity during
all of the afternoon hours in the three key peak summer months.
ADWEC’s analysis shows that there are more than 60 Summer days in the year when
demand is greater than 92% of annual peak demand. Of these 60 Summer days there
are six hours between 2 PM 9 and 8 PM when demand is greater than 95% of these
daily peak demands. Thus there are 360 hours (60 x 6 hours) after 2 PM when
demand is higher than 87.4% (95% x 92%) of the annual peak demand. These 360
hours can be thought of as 360 peak hours or near-peak hours.
When considering the contribution burning back-up fuel can make to enhancing the
solar plants’ output between 2 PM and 8 PM, it should be noted that while there are
360 hours when demand is greater than 87.4% of annual peak demand after 2 PM, the
quantity of gas to MASDAR will likely be supply constrained. Without burning gas
the solar plants can produce a minimum of 30–35 MW before 6 PM from solar
radiation alone. Taking into account the likely constrained gas supply to MASDAR
and the 360 hours when demand is greater than 87.4% of annual peak demand, it is
estimated that the solar plants could be safely relied up to produce approximately 40
MW during these 360 hours. Thus in the LOLE calculations the solar plants Shams 1,
2 and 3 are assumed to produce 40 MW during the annual peak. This 40 MW
compares with the installed capacity of 100 MW for each of Shams 1, 2 and 3.
3.3.3. MASDAR Hydrogen Plant
MASDAR’s hydrogen plant is the second part of MASDAR’s clean energy initiative.
An integrated hydrogen power generation project will enable clean electricity
generation along with carbon dioxide sequestration. The MASDAR hydrogen plant
will have a net capacity 390 MW and is planned to start commercial operation at the
end of 2012 / start of 2013. The plant will be located to the east of the existing
Shuweihat site. It is intended that the carbon dioxide produced by the hydrogen plant
will be used for oil reservoir reinjection purposes instead of natural gas. This will free
up additional natural gas for other uses, particularly power generation.
The hydrogen plant will be supplied with natural gas, which will then be split via the
air blown thermal reforming process into hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The
synthetic gas, being a mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen from the air will be used as a
fuel for combined cycle power plant feeding mainly two gas turbines but also
supplementary firing burners of heat recovery steam generators. Firing of synthetic
gas ensures that no carbon dioxide will be produced during electricity generation. The
carbon monoxide will be turned into carbon dioxide and further compressed and sent
to oil fields for enhanced oil recovery. This process will free some natural gas
currently used for oil reservoir reinjection.
9 2 PM was chosen since between 10 AM and 2 / 3 PM inclusive the CSPs can produce 100% output \
from solar radiation alone.
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