Sessions

Sponsored by Baker Hughes: Electrification in Mobility is gathering pace, and power is becoming the most critical input to these operations.  The future of airports is to electrify terminal infrastructure, ground service equipment, busses, and regional cargo airplanes.  Cruise Ships and Cargo Ships are ripe for shore power conversion, and there is significant political support for electrifying port operations.  Municipalities are planning for city bus fleet electrification with many projects underway.  As our country electrifies transportation, on-site power generation often offers a cleaner, cheaper, more resilient solutions.  Authority Planners, Design Firms, and Energy Technology companies are committed to designing and deploying on-site Microgrids to meet local and industry-set decarbonization goals.  This talk identifies specific Transportation Applications and discusses how to best approach each with an integrated solution.

The definition of a microgrid is a decentralized group of electricity sources and loads that normally operates connected to the traditional wide area synchronous grid but can also disconnect to "island mode" and function autonomously as physical or economic conditions dictate. Based on aging electric infrastructure, growing electric demands and focus on carbon reduction the microgrid market is growing to meet these global requirements. Recip engines are an integral part of a microgrid now and into the future based on their ability to provide consistent, sustainable, reliable electricity and thermal energy. Recip engines can operate on many different fuels such as natural gas, diesels, biogas, propane, etc. They are also being designed and configured to operate on clean zero-carbon fuels such as hydrogen, renewable natural gas to meet carbon reduction goals. Manufacturers are also focusing on making sure current reciprocating engine microgrids can be retrofitted to operate on zero-carbon fuels as they become readably available and are cost-effective. This abstract will focus on two operating microgrids that incorporate reciprocating engine technologies today. One operates an engine in a simple cycle mode and the other incorporates an engine operating in combined heat and power application (CHP). The first project contains a continuous duty generator set rated for is a 423 kW for a microgrid project located at the Chattanooga, TN airport. The customer is the local municipal utility, Electric Power Board of Chattanooga (EPB). This project utilizes a recip gen set, PV solar panels, battery energy storage, and a microgrid controller. EPB worked with the University of Tennessee to develop the microgrid controller as part of a grant. The second project is a 5-MW microgrid for Tasteful Selections, a vertically integrated farmer-owned, farmer-driven bite-size potato growing, packing, and shipping operation. Combining 3.6 MW cogeneration firm power with 120-kW solar and 1.25-MW/625-kWh lithium-ion battery storage, the microgrid has approximately 5-MW total capacity with provisions to add additional renewables, including more solar and renewable natural gas. It is architected to create efficiency at every turn, from capturing and repurposing heat to optimizing engine efficiency and advanced load side management. The microgrid incorporates solar energy generation and battery storage to provide Tasteful Selections a pathway to net-zero carbon.

This presentation shows concepts to support the decarbonization goals considering Aeroderivative technology as well as a portfolio of digital products to achieve an energy transition to meet the said goals. The Aeroderivative Gas Turbines technology (Aeros) demonstrated that it could meet an affordable and sustainable energy supply model, either through complementing Renewable Sources in hybrid configuration injecting at the same point of interconnect (POI) or utilizing a mixture of gas and green hydrogen. The GE Aeros have been operating in several sites in Thermal Hybrid mode with Renewable Sources (Solar and Wind) and Energy Storage (BESS) thanks to the digital controls that enable those assets to operate as a fully integrated single resource including forecasting and dispatch optimization capabilities. Additionally, the Aero technology have demonstrated the capability of operating with renewable fuels including hydrogen that reduces the carbon emissions when mixed with natural gas in distributed generation scheme. The Use cases: A_ Thermal Hybrid Operation 24/7: Thermal Hybrids allow the RE (Renewable Energy) asset to generate to its fullest capacity while turning down the thermal asset and hence reduce the curtailment, fuel burnt, the pure Thermal LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity) as well as Carbon emissions to enable complying with the decarbonization imperatives. This use case will serve as the new base load from a hybrid asset that has a lower carbon emission when compared a pure thermal one bringing to the table many advantages and reducing the grid wide efforts to balance renewable assets with other interconnected ones. B- Green Hydrogen operation – Aero as a long term storage technology The Aero Gas turbines offer multiple options to achieve lower carbon emissions, by using a renewable fuel such as hydrogen. The proposed use case herein constitutes of feeding an Electrolyzer with the electrical power from a Solar PV asset to generate green hydrogen. The H2 will be compressed and stored during the availability of the solar Energy and then deployed to be mixed with Natural gas to burn during the evening and early dawn hours. This option eliminates the alternative of mixing the hydrogen in the gas infrastructure pipelines and instead deploy it on a distributed micro scale and determine the associated LCOH, LCOE and associated carbon reduction. In such scheme, the Aero technology will be utilized as a long-term storage technology.

Heads of companies and thought leaders discuss specific challenges they have to meet their decarbonization goals or those set by government agencies, and how R&D can help individual companies and industries. The panel would focus on specific challenges and opportunities industries are facing, on electrification and its limits, and on specific measures/technologies needed.

Take 5 for a drink and a quick chat at our cantina receptions located throughout the exhibit hall.

Networking Bar Locations:

Company	Booth Name
Black & Veatch	4811
PTMW	3745
Power Plant Services	6146
Qualus Power Services	3827
Maddox	4245
Blue Wolf Performance Solutions	4516

The always complicated process forced upon developers and builders of new projects for the energy sector gets more challenging and problematic every year. Financial constraints, technology, and connectivity needs, regulatory hurdles, political pressures, and, last but not least, environmental goals and challenges are not always in alignment, so utilities and their partners have hard rows to hoe in bringing those together. A significant part of our build strategy is now planning for weather-related challenges with hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters.  How do we prepare ourselves to keep the grid and infrastructure online or restore as quickly as possible when disaster strikes?  This session will look at how both utilities, developers, and partners navigate the building and install the intelligent equipment needed for Destination 2050. 

The Initiate Hub (booth #3755) will host an invite-only mixer on Monday, May 23rd, from 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm. This exclusive mixer will bring together startup companies and utility innovation managers for an informal hour of networking and connecting.

Join your colleagues for a drink on the exhibit floor! Thanks to our sponsors there will be bars available throughout the exhibit hall located at each sponsor's booth.

Networking Bar Locations:

Company	Booth Number
UBC Millwrights	5117
WEG Electric Motors	5025
S T Cotter Turbine Services Inc.	4139
Industronic Inc	4333
Tuff Tube Transition	4765

To register for the roundtables, click here!

These roundtable discussions provide excellent opportunities to network with peers while engaging with industry experts. Roundtables focused on specific industry topics are moderated by leading professionals in each field. The roundtables sell out quickly—don’t delay reserving your seat!

This session will explore the different financing mechanisms and capital structures that will be critical to enabling a more sustainable energy future and what actors will be key to making this a success. Alternative financing for medium sized players: Reconciliation, direct-pay tax credits What's next for Project Finance? CPPAs, VPPAs, and what about other options?