Selected Case Studies Energy Systems

Zero Carbon Support

EMD has been appointed to support a global company (Fortune 500) in the realisation of their carbon neutrality ambition.

The client operates production facilities on several continents. Today’s energy mix, mainly based on gas, its costs and emissions as well as the demand side have been modelled as a base line.

In close dialog with the client, different solution spaces have been developed consisting of a mix of technologies adapted to the local demand patterns, conditions, and possibilities.

For each identified solution space, EMD ran economic simulations including CAPEX and OPEX in the time domain matching the energy demands with respect to electricity, heat, and cooling. Additionally, the sensitivity towards the different assumptions was quantified.

CREATING CLARITY
Out of the large range of options, EMD’s analysis led to the identification of the most economic, sustainable, and robust solution for each production facility, which helped to fulfil our client’s ambition to reach carbon neutrality by 2030.

From CO₂ to E-FUELS

The project C3U assessed the economic feasibility of the production of e-fuels by combing CO₂ from energy-intensive industries like cement production with green hydrogen produced by wind turbines. This comprehensive study showed which regulatory conditions are necessary to enable economically viable green cement.

Reducing the CO₂ footprint and producing e-fuels at the same time – this study analysed in detail the possibilities of cryogenic carbon capture (CCC) technology and electrolysis in combination with the production of e-fuels. Additional benefits can be generated by using waste heat in the local district heating system and using potential profits from grid balancing services.

CREATING CLARITY
The economic modelling performed by EMD included the analysis of the robustness of the system towards:

• The tariffs paid to the TSO and DSO
• The selling price of methanol
• The spot price of electricity
• The fuel factory capacity
• The liquefier capacity

The scenarios showed which regulatory frame allows to strike the balance between decarbonization and costs, and consequently make CCC and the production of sustainable fuels feasible.

Investment Decision: Green heat using wind

Assens District Heating company supplies heat to more than 3,000 households in the Danish city of Assens. The district heating system consisted of a wood chip fired CHP, three wood pellet boilers, a wind turbine, and an oil-fired back-up boiler. Our assignment was to evaluate if it was cost-effective to use electricity of the wind turbine during periods of low or negative electricity prices to generate “green” heat.

EMD conducted a feasibility study to evaluate the economics of supplementing the existing system with a new heat pump and/or an electric boiler powered by the wind turbine.

CREATING CLARITY
The feasibility study covered two different scenarios, which were compared with the existing system as baseline:

• Scenario 1: The existing system incl. a heat pump
• Scenario 2: The existing system incl. a heat pump and an electric boiler

Both scenarios could reduce the net heat production costs, but especially scenario 1 prove to have the biggest impact on the economics. Assens started operating the new heat pump in spring 2021.

Optimised Operation: Advanced bidding strategies

The district heating system in Hvide Sande is very complex with various production units: A large solar thermal plant (9,576 m2), an electric boiler, three wind turbines, two natural gas fired CHPs, two natural gas boilers, a heat pump and two separated thermal storage tanks.

With many different production units, it becomes a very challenging task to optimise the participation in multiple electricity markets while integrating fluctuating renewable energy sources in the production of heat. For instance, the electric boiler should consume electricity from the wind turbines when it is windy and consume electricity from the Day-ahead market when prices are low, but at the same time it should offer its capacity in the Regulating power markets. To make the operation planning even more complex, the electric boiler could be operated partly on electricity from the wind turbines and partly on electricity from the electricity markets.

CREATING CLARITY
Already during the conceptual design phase EMD was involved calculating the economic and environmental benefits of the various operating investments at the plant. Even bigger value could be added by implementing a real-time optimisation tool for the daily operation of the plant.

As a result of the optimisation, the district heating system has reduced its CO2 emissions by as much as 97% during the past five years, while at the same time the company has been able to lower prices for the benefit of consumers.

Claims: Operation Loss Calculation at I/S Reno Nord for Allianz Insurance

Reno Nord is a waste incineration plant, that processes waste for the city of Aalborg and its surrounding municipalities.

Due to a failure on a generator, one of Reno Nord’s blocks was out of operation for more than 5 months, during which the entire generator had to be lifted out of the building and transported to Germany to be repaired (see photo), resulting in a significant operating loss. The losses consisted mainly of lost electricity sales, lost subsidies and extra costs related to the handling of the received waste during the outage.

In connection with Reno Nord’s insurance claim to Allianz VersicherungsAG, EMD established the operation losses and extra waste management costs.