Fuel cells in the future won't solve NG shortage by themselves
In number, oil/gas-fired steam plants are way out in front of combined-cycle and nuclear stations, almost even with peaking plants, and a distant second to coal-fired plants. The aggregate capacity of this plant type is just shy of 102,000 MW, way ahead of the simple-cycle gas turbine (62,573 MW) and combined-cycle (40,058 MW) plants, just behind nuclear's 103,759 MW, and a third of the way to coal's 305,000 MW. In capacity, oil/gas-fired plants account for 16.6% of the US generating fleet rated more than 299 MW.
However, because their average production cost is relatively high at $64.16/MWh, oil/gas-fired units are the most expensive option for mid-range and base-load generation, duties for which they are best suited. No wonder: This group's relatively poor average heat rate--11,110 Btu/kWh--places it dead last among its combined-cycle, nuclear, and coal-fired competitors. And its average fuel cost is highest at $5.16/million Btu (MBtu).
platts.com
The fact that these plants are mostly older is more reason why they should be replaced with new combined cycle plants
or distributed generation such as fuel cells. Almost 160,000 MW of old power plants are using at least 50% more NG than it is possible with newer combined cycle plants.
If oil/gas fired combined heaing and power plants such as this
pgres.permonline.ru
were located in major cities and District Heating systems were expanded this type of plant has even higher efficiency.
Power companies here rarely supply information about their plants, their operating performance or even pictures on their web sites. This leads many people think that they are modern and efficient. There is far more openness in Europe, Eastern Europe and even Russia where entire cities have their heat and hot water supplied by combined heat and power plants. Most of our plants waste this heat in lakes, rivers and with cooling towers. |
