The Future Power Plant Water Market

The future power plant water market will be larger and more profitable but will require a major reorientation for the supplier industry. The factors shaping this change are

 

Changes In The Mix Among Fuel Sources

It is likely that much of the electricity, heat and power in the future will be generated locally and not transmitted long distances. In effect, the world is going to look more the way it did in the 1920s when most power was generated by units smaller than 100 MW.  A significant portion of this energy will be generated by combined heat and power facilities.  

The power plant additions in 2020 will total 305,000 MW. However, this number is quite misleading unless one realizes that the solar capacity is used only a fraction of the day and that the capture of waste heat can double the equivalent power output for fossil sources.

 

2020 Power Additions by Source in Equivalent Megawatts

Generator Type

2020 Electricity Additions

Energy Input Equivalent

Extractable Base Load Potential %

Potential Equivalent Heat and Power

Likely

Combined

Heat and

Power

Gas Turbines

73,000

144,000

70

100,800

10,000

Gas Engines

7,000

17,000

70

11,900

10,000

Nuclear

15,000

30,000

70

21,000

0

Coal Utility

75,000

187,000

70

130,900

5,000

Coal Industrial

4,000

9,000

70

6,300

3,000

Biomass

5,000

11,000

70

7,700

3,000

Solar

30,000

30,000

20

6,000

0

Wind

80,000

80,000

40

32,000

0

Diesel

10,000

25,000

70

17,500

1,000

Total

305,000

533,000

 

334,100

32,000

The first column provides the capacity for each generation source based on continuous operation.  The second column adds in the additional capacity if the available waste heat is converted to useful purposes.  The third column indicates the percent of this energy which could be captured.  The fourth column provides the potential equivalent heat and power if it were most efficiently utilized.   The fifth column provides the likely combined heat and power. The large central station coal and gas turbine plants have very large amounts of waste heat. There is no good use for this heat in the surrounding community. Attracting new industries to these locations with the promise of low cost energy is a challenge and will not be realistic for units started up in 2020. Solar and wind segments generate electricity but not heat. So they are not included.  Most diesel generators are used for standby or emergency purposes and are not utilizing waste heat.

So potential combined heat and power will be 32,000 MW and represent an investment of $640 million. 

Heat recovery is the key to an efficient CHP system.  This creates a good potential market for water treatment. An integrated waste management and energy company in Malmö, Sweden, is using Tranter Plate Heat Exchangers to capture waste heat from boiler flue gas condensate and cool this stream prior to purification and discharge. Gas cleaning from the waste-to-energy boiler takes place in a four-stage scrubber. Heat in the condensate from the top stage of the scrubber is transferred to the district heating loop through a Tranter Model GXD-205 exchanger. During the exchange, the scrubber condensate is cooled to a temperature 1–2 °C (1.8–3.6°F) above the incoming district heating water.

Two other heat exchangers complete the condensate heat recovery and cooling process. Plates for all three units were manufactured in 254 SMOTM stainless steel (1.4547) to withstand chlorides and fluorides in the flue gas condensate.

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Stainless steel heat exchanger courtesy of Tranter

Higher premium for high performance products.

Approximately 40 percent of the valves, pumps, sensors and materials used in the power industry are classified as “high performance” by McIlvaine.  This includes both severe and critical service applications. The information generated by high performance products will be worth more than the products themselves. This is the derivation of a broader conclusion reached by Jeffrey Immelt of GE who predicts that potential for machine to machine communications will be worth more than the machines themselves.

The availability of information on product performance promises to reduce operating cost for component owners.  This provides the potential for component companies to make better components and to sell them at higher profit margins.

The rapid deployment of new technology 

Jeffrey Immelt also believes that industry needs to develop the “hurry up” pace endemic to Silicon Valley.  McIlvaine has demonstrated this accelerated pace with a series of recent webinars for a large U.S. utility.  The utility is facing an investment of $700 million due to a sudden regulatory reversal.  Rather than make one large technology investment, the utility can combine a number of small investments and save hundreds of millions of dollars. The decision-making process has utilized the input from the “wise crowd” in a manner which is semi-structured.

Some of the most valuable input has come from individuals with very narrow but comprehensive expertise. The key to the “hurry up” pace will be to beneficially extract the niche knowledge on processes, products, industries and geographies. This expertise must be better exploited if the power industry is going to change at anywhere near the rate of the semiconductor industry. Individuals instead of retiring can focus on providing their niche expertise to the world.  Product suppliers are going to have to develop the process and application expertise through a combination of internal or external resources. In the era of smart products process knowledge will be increasingly important.

Consulting and service companies have very big challenges and opportunities. The financial rewards for providing a new and better solution are substantial. The owner will increasingly rely on outside assistance as new technology is being rapidly deployed.  On the other hand, the consulting or service company who does not have the “hurry up” frame of mind will be in jeopardy. Consulting companies will have to develop the niche expertise and cannot rely on the specifications compiled for a similar project two years earlier.

A new digital age decision process for product selection 

The value of the wise crowd can be tapped only if there is a structure in place to take advantage of it.  McIlvaine has created Decision Guides for technology selection for each type of power generation.   These Decision Guides are available to any power plant owner.  The organized utilization of case histories, white papers and webinars combined with the ongoing wise crowd input from webinars and emails is proving a unique new way of making power plant product decisions.

The wise crowd concept includes better collaboration among various groups within supplier companies.  GE, for example, is a major valve supplier but also provides the coal-fired generators, gas turbines, gas and diesel engines and other power generation technologies. Reduction of the $700 million U.S. utility project investment will take place only with integration of the digital optimization system, combustion modifications and new air pollution technologies employing unique combinations of chemicals.  More than a dozen of GE groups in Europe and various locations in the U.S. need to collaborate to provide the best combination of products for this project. Since a number of chemicals as well as other liquids and gases are involved, the smart valves will play a critical role.

Other suppliers are divisions of companies which are operators of power plants.  Collaboration among these divisions is also highly desirable.  NSSL Limited is a major valve manufacturer. It is part of NECO Industries which owns manufacturing plants and is constructing new coal-fired power plants.  These power plants will be subject to new environmental regulations limiting SO2, particulate, and NOx to low levels.  The valve requirements will be different than for existing power plants which have not had to meet tough standards.  Collaboration between divisions will ensure that the best valves be chosen for the new requirements.

Changes in the mix among fuel sources and the rapid deployment of new technology will change the supplier industry. A new digital age decision process for product selection will provide a vehicle for change. The end result will be a higher premium for high performance smart products.

Increase Sales to The Coal-fired Power Generators

The Asian market for coal-fired power plant equipment is going to be very large.  The new regulations on environmental control in India will create a large market in the next few years. Indonesia and Vietnam are planning over 100,000 MW of coal-fired power plants. China, Japan, Europe and the U.S. are upgrading existing coal-fired power plants   McIlvaine has a complete program to help m suppliers succeed in this market:

Detailed Forecasting of Markets, Prospects and Projects

The specific program would include:

Detailed forecasting of your product is provided in one of the following reports
http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php/markets

42EI Utility Tracking System:  Tracks all new projects and every existing power plant worldwide.

44I Power Plant Air Quality Decisions (Power Plant Flow Control and Treatment) This service has a free child web for power plants with a decision guide for each product and interface with power plants around the world

Utility E-Alert Tracks Billions of Dollars of New Coal-fired Power Plants on a Weekly Basis

UTILITY E-ALERT

Here are some Headlines from the Utility E-Alert – September 16, 2016

#1290 – September 16, 2016

Table of Contents

COAL – US

•        Energy Secretary Moniz states Administration working to keep Coal a part of Low Carbon Energy

COAL – WORLD

 

•        Saurashtra Power Plant (India) must revise Design to meet Air Pollution Regulations

•        BHEL is delivering a number of Power Plants with Precipitators

•        More BHEL Power Projects

•        India keeps adding, delaying, and canceling Coal Projects

•        Sri Lanka cancels Coal-fired Power Plant Project with NTPC

•        New Coal Plants in Victoria, South Australia under scrutiny

•        NEPRA grants license to China Power for 1,320 MW Coal-fired Power Plant at Hub Balochistan, Pakistan

•        Japan to build Two Coal-fired Power Plants North of Tokyo

The 41F Utility E-Alert is issued weekly and covers the coal-fired projects, regulations and other information important to the suppliers. It is $950/yr. but is included in the $3020 42EI Utility Tracking System which has data on every plant and project plus networking directories and many other features.

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TBA

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FoodAnalysis of 12 separate applications within food and beverage with analysis of valve, pump, compressor, filter, analyzer and chemical options; impact of new technologies such as forward osmosis.

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Municipal Wastewater - Quality of pumps, valves, filters, and analyzers in Chinese and Asian plants; new pollutant challenges; water purification for reuse.

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Mobile Emissions -Reduction in CO, VOCs, and particulate in fuels, oils, and air used in on and off road vehicles; impact of RDE and failure of NOx traps and the crisis in Europe created by the focus on clean diesel.

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Bob McIlvaine
President
847-784-0012 ext. 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
www.mcilvainecompany.com