Development of a prototype eCompressor for the fast-starting of gas fuelled generators

英国国家电网和全球大多数电网在某种程度上依赖内燃机发电机组(发电机组)在需求高峰时提供“峰值”电力供应，或在不可用时补充风能或太阳能等可再生能源。在有天然气电网的地方，发电机组是以天然气为燃料的，但在其他情况下，他们通常仍然使用柴油。这些发电机组能够迅速达到最大功率是有利的，这是柴油发电机组非常有能力的。然而，燃气发电机组从冷启动到满功率的响应时间很短，并且在运行时接受较大的负荷增加。这就是为什么柴油是备用电源的正常选择，特别是对于医院或数据中心等关键基础设施，即使有天然气也是如此。鲍曼开发了一种解决方案，可以显著提高天然气发电机组的响应能力。使用这种快速启动的eCompressor(FSEC)技术，可以实现更快的冷发动机负载上升时间--从几分钟减少到不到10秒。这种性能上的变革性变化可以使燃气发电机组在当前使用柴油的地方作为备用发电机组可行，并使现有的燃气发电机组能够更快地响应提高电网的弹性和稳定性。后一点很重要，因为英国国家电网正在推出新的激励措施，以加快启动速度，预计其他国家也会效仿。此外，FSEC技术可以帮助天然气发电机组过渡到对燃烧空气有更苛刻要求的未来零碳燃料。Bowman将开发一台TRL6原型，并在试验台上根据运营商定义的一系列性能要求进行评估，并在全球不同地区进行认证。在内燃机仍然是发电的最佳解决方案的情况下，FSEC技术将在短期内实现从柴油到天然气的过渡，提高燃气发电机组的性能，并加速向其他未来气体燃料的过渡，如绿色氢气或氨。

The UK national grid and the majority of power grids globally, rely to some extent on internal combustion engine generator sets (gensets) to provide 'peaking' power provision when demand peaks, or to back fill renewable sources such as wind or solar when unavailable. Where there is a gas grid, gensets are gas fuelled but otherwise, they often still use diesel.It is advantageous for these gensets to be able to ramp to full power quickly, which diesel gensets are very capable of. However, gas gensets have poor response times ramping from a cold start to full power, and when accepting large load increases whilst running. This is why diesel is the normal choice for backup power, especially for critical infrastructure such as hospitals or data centres even if gas is available.Bowman has developed a solution to dramatically improve gas genset responsiveness. With this 'fast-start' eCompressor (FSEC) technology, much faster cold engine load ramp times can be achieved - reduced from a few minutes to less than 10 seconds. This transformational change in performance can make gas gensets viable for backup where diesel is currently used and enable existing gas gensets to be much more responsive to improve power grid resilience and stability. This latter point is important as UK National Grid is introducing new incentives for faster starting and other countries are expect to follow suit. Furthermore, FSEC technology can help with the transition of gas gensets to future zero carbon fuels which have more onerous requirements for combustion air.Bowman will develop a TRL6 prototype and evaluate it on a test bench against a full range of performance requirements defined by operators and for certification in various global territories.Where the combustion engine remains the optimal solution for power generation, FSEC technology will be an enabler for transition from diesel to gas in the near-term, improve the performance of gas gensets and also accelerate transition to other gas fuels of the future such as green hydrogen or ammonia.