VGB POWERTECH 11 (2019)

A journey through 100 years VGB | VGB POWERTECH 4 (2006)
R&D in EURELECTRIC´s View
long-term and societal issues, should be encouraged
by the Commission, otherwise not
done. It was indeed evident from the R&D
enquiry that the current R&D focus was
mostly on operational excellence (getting the
best of existing assets) in order to outperform
than competitors. This results in competitive
(not shared) R&D essentially targeted on operation
and maintenance. F igure 3 gives a
schematic idea of the position of co-operative
and competitive research along the life cycle
of equipment.
The R&D group produced two position papers
which were submitted to the European
Commission, the first concerning R&D
themes to be included in FP7 and the second
including more detailed topics [2 and 3].
The draft programme recently issued by the
Commission [4] meets the expectations of
EURELECTRIC:
— Contents:
– a separate chapter for energy,
— a balanced array of technologies, including
conventional power generation
— Budget:
– doubling of the yearly budget
compared to FP6 (still under discussion)
The needs for collaborative R&D, as identified
in the two EURELECTRIC positions papers,
are detailed hereafter, for each of the
life process links of an installation (considering
generation as an example). In addition,
the main topics given in the R&D Inquiry
(2003) are mentioned for competitive R&D.
— Strategy – policy
(mostly co-operative R&D):
A global systemic approach is needed as
the electric system is a physical reality
which cannot be separately handled as independent
parts (generation/grids).
For that purpose, R&D efforts should
be devoted to establishing the following
pieces of work:
– Roadmap: the aim is to develop a European
electricity roadmap encompassing
the vision for a sustainable society up
to and beyond 2025.
– Regional planning and location planning
In the next 10 to 20 years, not only replacement
but also additional electric
power will be needed. It is difficult to
find acceptable new locations (regional,
political, environmental, etc.). It is
therefore necessary to find tools for
long-term plans and define locations for
future realisation of power plant projects.
– Atlas for CO 2 storage
— Selection and design (mostly co-operative
R&D):
The accent is on the development of new
or improved technologies.
– Highly-efficient, clean plants
– Ultra-supercritical coal plants
– Ultra efficient CCGT (Combined Cycle
with Gas Turbine)
– IGCC (Integrated Gasification Gas
Combined Cycle)
– CO 2 capture and storage
These items include flue gas cleaning, materials
development, and the use of biomass.
Linked to this last point, the development of
appropriate bio fuels processing technologies
for a future biomass market is of high importance.
These topics are to be developed mainly by
equipment manufacturers, together with the
electricity industry for demonstration plants.
An example is the Emax project initiated by
VGB to investigate the practical feasibility of
ultra-supercritical coal plants [5].
Of course, nuclear generation must also be
considered, as well as distributed generation
technologies (small turbines/wind turbines/
fuel cells/wave turbines/etc.).
The EURELECTRIC position is to keep all
technology options open.
— Commissioning/link to the grid (part of cooperative
and part of competitive R&D)
The main targets are:
– efficient transmission line for offshore
wind farms (for example HVDC lines),
– resolution of power quality/stability issues
(due to increasing distributed generation
and to the intermittent nature of
renewable energy sources (for example
wind and solar energy)
EURELECTRIC suggested the following
topics to resolve this last issue:
– development of technical tools for optimised
forecasting and management of
power fluctuations caused by renewables,
– options for stabilisation of the electricity
grid by intelligent management of
distributed generation and production
from renewables at a European level,
– development of smart metering equipment
to facilitate the growth of embedded
generation for domestic use, including
incorporating two way communications
to provide generation and demand-side
control,
Table 2. R&D in the electricity industry: Schizophrenia ?
– advanced electricity storage technologies
among others compressed air energy,
storage, in particular for management
of fluctuating feed-in from renewables
like wind or solar.
— Operation/maintenance (mostly competitive
R&D)
R&D is mainly focused on optimisation
of operation and maintenance.
– Operation optimisation
It includes:
– all efforts for increased efficiency and
for reduction of environmental impact,
– fuel flexibility (biomass/low cost fuels),
and combustion optimization,
– waste treatment and valorisation (for
example coal fly ash),
– fine tuning instrumentation and control.
– Maintenance optimisation
The purpose is to manage assets optimally:
– life assessment/life extension,
– condition monitoring,
– advanced remote diagnostic system
Very often R&D for operation/maintenance
is combined with high level to
general operational assistance and is
performed very close to the field.
— Refurbishment (mostly competitive R&D)
Many efforts of the electricity industry
are devoted to the improvement of existing
power plant technologies, either by
adding, adapting, or, changing key equipment
to perform better. This is a highly
competitive area.
— Energy efficiency for end use (co-operative
and competitive R&D)
Electricity companies also concentrate
R&D on this theme, with the intent of
bringing added value to customers.
Topics of interest are:
– improvement of electro technologies,
– energy efficiency in industrial processes,
– efficient buildings/ideal houses.
Conclusion
The R&D in the electricity industry is crucial
in this period of fundamental changes, resulting
from liberalisation and enhanced environmental
concerns.
These two factors induce many paradoxes
( T a b l e 2 ) which make the R&D decisions
difficult:
Paradoxes
Profitability Responsibility
Generation/SupplySale Transmission
Big centralised Distributed generation
European Regional
Electric system regulation
Decrease R&D budgets Higher Innovation and R&D needs
Competition Co-operation
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