FLEXnCONFU

Natural gas (NG) fired Combined Cycle (CC) power plants are currently considered the most flexible power plants to operate in the EU grid to facilitate RES penetration. In order to enhance their flexibility and also start to sell flexibility/ancillary services (also considering potential virtual aggregation), Gas Turbines Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Utilities are investigating new strategies and technologies for power flexibility, also considering that a “fuel switch” is close foreseen from coal to NG among most used fossil based dispatchable power plants and that the role of CC will be of “RES best friends” at least up to 2030. In this sense reducing their emission is also a strong need of GT R&D panorama promoting the exploitation of different fuels than Natural gas only. FLEXnCONFU aims to demonstrate at TRL7 in Ribatejo EDPP CC Power Plant a Power-to-gas-to-power (P2G2P) solution that will enhance CC flexibility (thus enabling them to provide grid flexibility services and getting higher revenues), reduce their NG consumption and therefore their related emission. The P2G2P system will be based on a Power-to-Hydrogen solution , while a Power-to-ammonia-to-power solution developed will be demonstrated in a properly modified microgas turbine. The P2G2P solution will be directly controlled by a grid driven/responsive management system . GT combustion acceptability of different NG/H2/NH3 mixtures will be studied.

Within Task 6.5 of the Project ("Regulatory and non-technical framework") for which they are seeking support from HS Booster, the P2H and P2A solutions studied and demonstrated during the project, will be analysed from a regulatory point of view to understand not only for replication within WP7, but also for demonstration purposes in WP4 and WP5, how to make it compatible with grid regulation and facilitate its installation and operation. Special attention will be paid to evaluating project results standardisation/certification pathway and non-technical aspects that may pose limitation to market entry, including legislative/regulatory restriction, if any, and how to overcome those barriers.

Reason for applying to HSbooster.eu services

The project aims at understanding the standardisation framework related to P2H and P2A solutions. In case needed it considers the opportunity to share its developments and point of view to specific workgroups. Also, specify a certification strategy.

The Task has been structured according to the following steps:

1) SETTING THE GROUND

• Analysis of the “P2H and P2A solutions and related background” to extract relevant information on regulatory framework and on standardisation and certification aspects
• Starting from that, consolidate a list of key concepts and keywords related to the Topics as a starting point for a structured standards search

2) STANDARD SCENARIO ANALYSIS

• Based on identified topics, extensive search of relevant standards
• Through the standards, the relevant technical bodies (technical committees TC, subcommittees SC and working groups WG) will be identified as well as other  fields for the search, such as the International Classification of Standards (ICS)

3) Standards and standardisation bodies clustering and mapping

• The activity will have two different objectives: to identify the main bodies to enter in contact with to disseminate project results and to identify the responsible working groups to follow standards evolution (if possible)

4) Cross-linking of identified standards and Key Exploitable Results (KERs)

• Match the identified list of standards and standardisation bodies with FLEXnCONFU project results
• Propose actions for each of the Key Exploitable Results (KERs) regarding standardisation and certification actual status and future perspectives