With the rising deployment of intermittent renewable energies and in the absence of large scale energy storage, new power and cogeneration plants need to be highly flexible to handle the load demands.
Load flexibility and fast ramp rates are key characteristics of ERK boilers and we have rapid response units in operation for more than 15 years, e.g. 130 tph and 540°C oil and gas fired unit in Cottbus, Germany. These boilers can start from 0-100% load in <4.5 minutes and have been tested to do this in only 3 minutes.
ERK is now transferring this know-how to load flexible HRSG’s for gas turbine combines cycle plants as these are likely to provide balancing power in the future. To maximise load change capabilities we have applied for patents, which reduce the wall thickness of the high pressure drum and headers.
We have already quoted this new design with one of our licensees and are looking forward to future project opportunities.
