Living energy issue1_09_10

Clean Energy, Danish StyleAn Essay from a Land ahead of Its Time

A New Era in Energy Efficiency

■ The WEC’s Christoph Frei Weighs In

■ A Tour of Innovative Installations Worldwide

Smart GridsA Visionary Approach to

Energy Intelligence

Issue 1 | November 2009

The Magazine for Energy Leadership

Living Energy

Dear Reader,

Never before has the smart manage-ment and use of energy paid off as much as it does today. Why? Because energy efficiency provides both eco-nomical and ecological benefits. On the one hand, the reduced consumption of resources costs less, offering enor-mous savings potential for compa-nies. And on the other hand, nature profits doubly: Increasingly scarce fos-sil resources are conserved and CO2 emissions are reduced. We, the Siemens Energy Sector, want to offer a new platform for the theme of energy as a forum for sharing our know-how with our customers and partners. And because we feel the most pleasant form of reading is still brows-ing through an interesting magazine, we have launched “Living Energy” just for you. In our new publication, prominent experts and prize-winning journalists will explore one of the most urgent challenges of our time: How can one secure reliable and affordable energy supplies that also protect the climate and environment? Appropriately, the articles in this

inaugural issue will focus on the magic words: energy efficiency.Efficiency can be achieved along the entire energy conversion chain – from the production and transport of oil and gas and the various types of power generation, to power transmission and distribution and ultimately the consumption of electricity. In all our work, we clearly focus on the needs of our customers. Some 17,500 engi-neers at Siemens Energy work around the globe on developing products and solutions that help our customers achieve their individual efficiency goals. Innovative, responsible, excellent – these are the three values on which all our actions are based. Innovations like our new SGT5-8000H gas turbine or the world’s first 800-kV HVDC transmission line. Responsibility that is reflected in the way we work with our customers and stakeholders. Siemens, for instance, has been hon-ored this year for the tenth consecu-tive time for its sustainable business practices. Responsibility also means

being one of the companies world-wide with the most transparent busi-ness processes. And excellent, finally, not only describes our products, but above all our global team. Well over 80,000 people at Siemens Energy work with passion, commitment and a pio-neering spirit on finding solutions meeting the needs of our customers. I hope you will enjoy the informative articles, interviews and facts featured in this initial issue of our business-to-business magazine “Living Energy.” I wish you a stimulating new view of the world of energy!

With best regards,

Editorial

Living Energy · Issue 1/ November 2009 · www.siemens.com/energy/living-energy 3

Wolfgang Dehen, Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO of the Energy Sector

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ContentContent

03 Editorial

58 Essay

62 In Short

70 Imprint

71 Calendar Trade Fairs and Congresses

06 Living Energy recently secured an exclusive interview with Switzer-land’s Christoph Frei, Secretary General at the World Energy Council and former Senior Director of Energy Industries & Strategies at the World Economic Forum, in which he can-didly addresses the global problem of energy demand and consumption vs. energy supply and efficiency. For an accompanying article, energy specialist and author Craig Morris pro-files ten groundbreaking projects in various sectors that he visited around the globe, all aimed at increasing efficiency in the energy supply chain.

06 The future of undersea oil exploration – in Norway now

50 Urban integration of high-voltage substations from Doha to California

Cover Story

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Extolling the virtues of “Smart Grids”: Siemens’ Ralf ChristianPage 28

Capturing CO2 emissions in Belgium with T-Power’s Richard Snow 2

44 Bavaria: Putting the world’s largest gas turbine into operation

36 Renewable energy: North Sea turbines

Scottish and Southern Energy’s Colin Hood on wind power for the futurePage 36

36 Offshore Wind PowerThe formidable North Sea off the coast of Suffolk in England will soon be home of the largest offshore wind farm in the world, providing a reliable source of clean energy to nearly half a million homes.

44 Environmentally Friendly EnergyTo comply with increasingly tighter EU regulations on emissions from fossil fuel power plants, Siemens has stepped up its research and develop-ment in carbon capture technology.

50 Urban IntegrationSomeday, high-voltage substations may no longer blemish urban land-scapes. In innovative projects around the world, they are already being integrated into city streetscapes in not only aesthetically pleasing, but also environmentally conscious ways.

Features

24 PhotovoltaicUsing the sun’s energy to benefit mankind is not a new idea, but today, Siemens is leading the way toward capturing its power efficiently on much greater scale with state-of-the-art photovoltaic technology.

28 Smart GridsFinding smarter ways to operate power distribution grids and updat-ing antiquated metering systems is a worldwide trend, resulting in savings on electricity, costs, “greener” energy consumption, and fewer problems with power outages.

32 FinancingFinancing a new combined-cycle power plant in Belgium was a success despite difficult economic times, thanks to the project’s strong, reputable partners, its solid business plan, and the integrity of its purpose.

What is the World Energy Council’s forecast for energy consumption?FREI: There will be great regional differences. In our scenarios, we ex-pect energy demand in the developing world to continue to grow strongly, but the developed world should actu-ally be able to meet a large share of its slightly growing energy demand from increased efficiency – and meet possi-bly up to 40 or 50 percent of the cur-rent Kyoto targets through efficiency measures.

That is the demand side – will production be able to keep up?FREI: You are referring to the idea of peak oil. The overall trend is rising prices as we run out of easy oil, and prices will rise even further when we get an international carbon price. As prices rise, of course, demand and emissions drop. But this is the goal.If we return to the question of the scar-city of resources, you have to look at each source of energy on its own. If we talk about oil and gas, it is clear that easy oil is becoming scarcer, but at the same time, unconventional sourc-es are gradually becoming profitable and will partly counteract that trend.

Will the drop in energy demand slow down economic growth?FREI: Most economists now agree that energy consumption and economic growth are increasingly decoupled in industrialized countries. I don’t think we have too much to worry about here. Lower energy consumption does not mean a lower standard of living.

Where are we going to get all this efficiency from?FREI: There are a lot of areas. To take one example, we have tremendous potential in buildings, where a large chunk of our energy is consumed – and where little attention has tradi-tionally been paid to energy efficiency. Mobility is another growing area of interest. And roughly 50 percent of our electricity is consumed in electric motors, which generally do not run optimally, so the potential here is great. In the production industry, a lot of systems are quite old and need to be modernized. So there is really a lot of work to do everywhere.

Do you think people are willing to become more efficient?FREI: Mobility is an interesting field

World Energy Council head Christoph Frei is also an Adjunct Professor and Advisor to the President of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, where he earned his PhD in energy policy and sustainable development in 2001.

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“There Is a Lot of Work to Do Everywhere” Christoph Frei, Secretary General of the World Energy Council and former Senior Director of Energy Industries & Strategy at the World Economic Forum, spoke exclusively to Living Energy on the future of energy.

Interview by Craig Morris


Energy Effi ciency


Innovative Projects throughout the Energy Conversion ChainEnergy innovation – this catchphrase is on everyone’s lips in the globalized world of energy. Siemens Energy Sector is the world’s leading supplier of a complete spectrum for the generation, transmission and distribution of power and for the extraction, conversion and transport of oil and gas. Living Energy invites you to take a look at ten of the most innovative projects along the entire energy chain, which our journalist researched or visited in person – projects that soon may come to a power socket near you.In

By Craig Morris

in this respect. The question of wheth-er people are willing to drive cars with smaller, thriftier engines is an emo-tional one. We do know, however, that when prices rise, people are willing to switch to more efficient systems. For instance, when the price of a bar-rel of oil recently rose to more than 140 dollars, sales of SUVs plummeted. Gasoline prices dropped shortly there-after and have since been rising again, but we can clearly see that a small step was made in the right direction.If we take a look at how far we need to go in the field of mobility, we see some

E-mobility will play an important role in this context. However, there are a number of unknowns there as well: The electricity supply will have to de-liver on the demand surge, and we will not only need tremendous amounts of lithium for the batteries once their cost comes down, but also an industry capable of effective recycling.

What do we have to do in Copenha-gen to reach these efficiency goals?FREI: The main thing is to get an in-ternational carbonprice mechanism. Anything less would simply not prop-erly contribute to greater efficiency and energy security. The goal in Copen-hagen – and in subsequent policies, to the extent that this goal is not reached in December – has to be a strong in-ternational price for carbon.

Is the developing world going to have to pay the same price for a ton of carbon as the developed world does?FREI: No, that is neither politically feasible, nor fair. There will have to be quotas that allow the developing world to continue its economic devel-opment in the years to come.

If we walk through Siemens’ energy sector, we could start where the electricity supply chain traditionally

begins: coal, oil and gas, and nuclear. In recent decades, renewable energy sources – in particular, solar power and

wind – have also increasingly become significant players. Siemens is a major technology supplier in each of these

For our author Craig Morris, the most interesting part of the tour was “seeing things in person and not just reading about them.” He was also especially in-terested in demand management, “which I have been following for years.”

astonishing figures. For instance, we currently have some 800 million cars on the road, but that number is set to rise to 2,000 million by 2030 – that’s a 2.5-fold increase. If we wanted to keep our emissions at the current level, we would have to become 2.5 times more efficient in the sector of mobility – just to maintain the status quo. So each vehicle is going to have to become 2.5 times more efficient, and that is not going to be possible simply by changing people’s behavior, not even with the kind of price increases that occurred last year.

Christoph Frei

The Energy Conversion Chain: From Start to Finish

Born in Switzerland in 1969, Christoph Frei became Secretary General at the World Energy Council in April 2009. He also has an assignment as Adjunct Professor and Advisor to the President of the Swiss Federal Institute of Tech-nology, Lausanne (EPFL). From 2001 to 2009, Frei was Senior Director of Energy Industries & Strategy at the World Economic Forum and a member of the Forum’s Executive Council. He holds an electrical engineering degree, an econometrics degree, a master in energy systems and a master in applied ethics and received his PhD from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, in 2001. Frei has led projects on energy security, energy poverty, sustainable biofuels, and innovation in cities.

Oil and Gas

1. Subsea Exploration in Norway: Not Science Fiction2. Carbon-Neutral Pipeline3. Coal Liquefaction in South Africa: Synthetic Gas

Renewables

7. UK Wind Farm: Standing in the Sea

Power Generation

4. Power Plant in Irsching, Germany: Technology of Tomorrow5. Modernizing Power Plants in Europe: Green Megawatts6. It’s Payback Time – How a ControlSystem Upgrade Saves Money

Power Transmission

8. Tapping Hydropower in China: Novel High-Voltage DC System Increases Transmission Capacity by 60 Percent

Power Distribution

9. E-DeMa in Germany: RuhrArea Model Region

10. EDISON in Denmark: Increasing E-Mobility

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Energy Effi ciency Energy Effi ciency

Exploring New Territory in Fossil FuelsOil and gas have been in the news a lot lately. With prices fluctuating wildly at the pump, consumers are perhaps more aware of changes in the crude oil market than they are of any other source of energy.

Siemens products are used in all stages of this sector: onshore and offshore drilling, the use of electric drives for natural gas liquefaction, the coal-to-liq-uid process, pipelines, and terminal management.

Take a walk with us through three novel sites where Siemens is either in-creasing the efficiency of the overall process or allowing previously inaccessible resources to be tapped.

1. Subsea Exploration in Norway: Not Science Fiction

You may have heard of the recent best seller The Swarm by German novelist Frank Schätzing. The fully automated subsea oil exploration described in the book is not fiction, however. Siemens is developing a compressor with an integrated elec-tric motor that may be used at this

futuristic station. As easily exploit-able oil and gas fields become rarer, engineers are working to reach less accessible ones. One approach is to move further out to sea. But at depths of 3,000 meters below sea level, water pressure is a considerable challenge. It is also impractical at such depths

to have people manning the station.The solution is to have robots operate independently. For several years, Siemens has tested a prototype of its electric-driven compressor in an on-shore application in Holland. It will provide maintenance-free operation at the required depths.

sectors, and in June of this year, the company announced how various stim-ulus packages across the globe would affect it. Over the next three years, the firm expects to sign 21 billion US dollars worth of new contracts, nearly 8 billion of which will be devoted to renewables and energy efficiency.The next stage in the electricity sup-ply chain is the transmission system. Here, large central power stations hook up to the high-voltage power grid, which later connects via transformers to the medium-voltage distribution system, to which smaller generators are often connected – wind turbines, for instance. From there, the grid branches off into the low-voltage level that serves individual buildings.At each of these stages, Siemens is working to improve energy efficiency and diversify energy production. In the following pages, we invite you to accompany me on a visit to some of the most innovative projects that Siemens is working on. At midstream in the value chain, Siemens has developed

a novel all-electric system to liquefy natural gas, thereby boosting its efficiency by as much as 50 percent. A global leader in steam turbines, Siemens has retrofitted nuclear power plants to produce as much as 10 per-cent more energy without any other modernization of the plant. And in the field of gas, Siemens is now putting into operation the world’s largest combined-cycle gas turbine in Bavaria. In the field of coal liquefaction, Siemens has provided the world’s largest air separation compressors to a South African plant. And Siemens may soon be providing an electric compressor for a Norwegian subsea oil platform that has to run maintenance-free at a depth of 3,000 meters underwater.In all of these areas, efficiency is cru-cial. After all, fossil and nuclear plants will continue to be our main sources of electricity for some time to come, so efficient use of these resources will both extend the range of these energy sources and reduce the environmen-tal impact.

In some projects, the positive environ-mental impact is considerable, though it is not apparent at first glance. For instance, a new high-voltage DC trans-mission system that Siemens will complete in China in 2010 allows the country to tap more hydropower in-stead of adding new coal plants. The CO2 emissions offset amount to a whopping 33 million tons at the Yun-nan-Guangdong project alone.In other projects, the positive environ-mental impact is obvious. As mentioned above, Siemens is a global leader in steam turbine generators, so it comes as no surprise that Siemens is a leader in the steam turbine generator sets for concentrated solar power (CSP). But fewer people may be aware that Siemens may have the longest history in offshore wind, having taken over Bonus, the firm behind Vindeby, one of the first offshore wind projects in the world back in 1991. And in a more spectacular development, Siemens has come up with a solution to allow wind turbines to be put up outside of shal-

low offshore areas – the technology sounds like it could never work when you try to describe it, but since it does, we will do our best to tell you how.

Finally, there is my personal favorite: smart grids. Siemens is working on two projects in Germany and Denmark that will allow electricity consumption

to be better tailored to production – rather than the other way around, which has been the case up to now.

People will still be stationed at sea level, but remote operated vehicles (ROV) will work on the seafloor to

tap remote gas resources. Gas pipelines will then fill up right at sea from the ROV. It would be too difficult to

have humans stationed so deep on the seafloor.

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Energy Effi ciency

Power Plants for the FutureCentral power plants are our main source of electricity, and while distrib-uted power is becoming more com-mon, central coal and nuclear plants can be expected to continue to pro-vide a large share of our electricity for some time to come. In addition, since the 1980s, gas turbines have been very popular as a way of quickly reacting to rising power demand.Siemens has helped a number of plant

operators tweak their processes to provide immediate efficiency gains al-most overnight. Indeed, in one project, Siemens’ engineers helped an opera-tor in the Netherlands to add 35 MW of generating capacity in the short space of only 35 days.The efficiency gains are even greater in northern Bavaria, where Siemens is testing the world’s largest gas turbine. Siemens and EON chose the site be-

cause the gas lines were in place, but the plant was partly already out of operation. Its now unprofitable conventional gas-fired boilers once replaced the oil-fired boilers that had themselves become unprofitable dur-ing the oil crises in the 1970s. In a way, this gigantic turbine is the third generation at the plant in Irsching – one that may soon set the industry standard.

3. Coal Liquefaction in South Africa: Synthetic Gas

Along with the USA and China, South Africa has considerable coal reserves. It also has a special history: During the years of apartheid, an embargo was imposed on the country, which then had to resort to coal liquefaction as a way of producing fuel domestically.These days, South Africa can, of course, buy oil on the global market, but its prices have risen enough that

liquefied coal is an economic option. Siemens has provided the country with the world’s largest compressor for air separation. “The trend is toward larger facilities,” says Jochen Domas, a Sales Director with Siemens. “Cus-tomers prefer to have one large plant rather than two smaller ones.” This approach lowers overall project costs without reducing efficiency.

In the coal-to-liquid process, high concentrations of oxygen are needed to produce “syngas” (synthetic gas). As air is cooled down to minus 180 de-grees Celsius, the various components become fluid, allowing them to be captured separately. Nearly pure oxy-gen can thus be used for the combus-tion process.

At Sasol’s coal-to-liquid plant in Secunda, South Africa, a series of chemical processes convert coal into synthetic fuels.

2. Carbon-Neutral Pipeline

In some respects, the Ruby Pipeline is nothing extraordinary. When it opens in early 2011, the 1,000-kilometer-long, 1-meter-diameter tube will trans-port natural gas from the wilds of the US state of Wyoming to other west-ern states: Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada and Washington. It will have a huge capacity – hauling some 40 million cubic meters of gas per

day – but even that is not special in the USA, the world’s largest energy user.What sets off the Ruby from the rest are its shoes. Size zero, to be precise. Thanks to Siemens, the carbon foot-print of the pipeline will be null. This is because the three STC-SV (08-5-A) pipeline compressors, three 17-MW electric motors, and three Perfect Har-mony drives that Siemens supplies –

the ones pumping the gas – will be powered by greenhouse-gas-free en-ergy. Their electricity mix will consist of renewable fuels plus conventional fuels offset by carbon credits.“A carbon-neutral pipeline is a first,” says CEO Tom Blades of the Siemens Oil & Gas Division. “And that is where we want to be in the oil and gas business.”

4. Power Plant in Irsching, Germany: Technology of Tomorrow

In Irsching, Bavaria, Siemens is put-ting the world’s largest gas turbine into operation in a combined-cycle unit in cooperation with EON. As Siemens Program Manager Willibald Fischer explains, the prototype of this turbine – the H series – was built in Berlin in 2007 and has since been tested on site in Irsching. Fischer

says, “Not only is this turbine extra large, it also is extra efficient – thanks to reduced losses – and this brings overall operating costs down.”The firing temperature has been increased by about 100 K, “which plac-es even greater challenges on the nickel-based alloys that stand directly in the hot-gas path.” The gas turbine

itself has an efficiency of around 40 percent, and the downstream steam turbine, which will operate at around 600° C, adds on another 20 percent-age points. “The 600° C water steam cycle with HRSG squeezes more out of the exhaust gas. Temperature of the residual exhaust is then only around 85° C,” Fischer explains.While Siemens’ F series gas turbines currently makes up roughly two-thirds of the firm’s gas turbine sales, Fischer says, “The H series is the technology of tomorrow. A lot of our customers are very interested in this project, and we receive a lot of visitors in Irsching.”

Author Craig Morris visits the world’s largest gas turbine in an open-cycle power plant. The turbine is already installed and is currently waiting for the steam turbine and balance of plant to be added downstream.

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Two of Siemens’ staff get almost directly to grips with the world’s larg-est gas turbine, located at Siemens’ test facility in Irsching, Germany.

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The installation of a modern steam turbine can improve plant efficiency considerably.

Energy Effi ciency

5. Modernizing Power Plants in Europe: Green Megawatts

Often, aging power plants can be mod-ernized to produce more power. For instance, Siemens can retrofit the rotor section of steam turbines used both in coal-fired and nuclear power plants by applying novel blading and sealing technologies. “I can think of a lot of examples where we have done that – at plants with outputs ranging from 200 to 1,200 MW,” says Norbert Henkel, Director Steam Plant Modernization

6. It’s Payback Time – How a Control-System Upgrade Saves Money

About 100 kilometers west of Phoenix, Arizona (USA), the mountainous des-ert is the home of New Harquahala Generating Company (NHGC), a com-bined-cycle, 1,080-MW gas-fired gen-erating plant that sells “merchant” power. Unlike conventional utilities, merchant power plants, like NHGC, are privately owned and sell power directly to wholesale buyers at competitive rates in unregulated power markets. When it comes to justifying any new capital investment, NHGC’s owner is

extra hawkeyed on return on invest-ment and on improving competitive-ness in the merchant power playfield. Both the owner and the plant saw the opportunity of achieving their busi-ness objectives by upgrading the plant control system to Siemens’ fourth-generation controls technology SPPA-T3000 in fall of 2007. They immedi-ately jumped into action. They were not disappointed by the returns. The plant saw intangible benefits from various areas: system operability and

flexibility, plant security, as well as employee morale right after project completion. Tangible savings totaled up to more than half a million dollars per year. Around two-thirds of it came from improved reliability and avail-ability by significantly reduced control system trips, which kept the plant in closer alignment to its long-term ser-vice agreements. The rest came from savings of time and effort in adminis-tration. Numbers talk and they all speak an important word: PROFIT.

Region Europe, Asia, Middle East.One such project is the Borssele nucle-ar plant in the Netherlands, where an additional 35 MW were added on in a mere 35 days. “The payback in such projects – the euro per megawatt – is surprisingly great,” Henkel explains. The new components extend the service life of the power plants, which are gen-erally at least 20 years old when mod-ernized, and they improve efficiency.

Another example is the coal plant in Farge near Bremen, Germany. Here, the plant’s total capacity was in-creased from 318 to 345 MW, with CO2 emissions being reduced by up to 100,000 tons per annum. In the pro-cess, the plant’s service life was ex-tended by 15 years. “We speak of this added generation as ‘green mega-watts,’” Henkel says.

Renewables: Offshore Wind and Large-Scale SolarSince last fall, Siemens has a Solar Power Business with two focal points: large-scale rooftop and ground-mount-ed crystalline photovoltaic arrays, and concentrated solar power (CSP). As part of its intention to drive technology in solar thermal power plants, Siemens in March 2009 bought a significant stake in Italy’s Archimede Solar Energy. The company has innovated in CSP: Instead of using oil as the heat transfer fluid in parabolic troughs, with the heat being passed on to the molten salt in the boiler via a heat exchanger, the

molten salt runs through the glass tubes atop the parabolic troughs. This approach allows salt to be stored so the plant can run at night plus en-ables higher temperatures, and there-by greater power production. Siemens has a 90 percent share of the parabolic CSP market with its steam turbines. Siemens is also focusing on a sector that has proven quite exciting offshore. The energy potential per turbine is much greater at sea, where wind veloc-ities are higher and steadier than on land, making wind a more reliable

source of electricity. At least in theory.In practice, offshore wind turbines must withstand harsher weather conditions than onshore turbines do. Siemens is well positioned to offer the most robust turbines on the mar-ket. The world’s first offshore wind farm went up in 1991 off the coast of Denmark. Siemens later acquired the company behind that project: Bonus Energy. As a result, Siemens has nearly two decades of experience in the fledg-ling offshore wind market – more than any other company worldwide.Ph

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Off the shelf: Siemens has the right-sized turbines, ready today for commercial installation and operation.

7. UK Wind Farm: Standing in the Sea

Power Transmission –Enabling Large-Scale Clean EnergyAround a century ago, one of the first standardization struggles in industrial history took place between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison. In what has become known as the “Battle of Currents,” Westinghouse and his colleague Nikola Tesla succeeded in getting alternating current used to

transport electricity from Niagara Falls to Buffalo, New York, by demon-strating that AC was more efficient than DC in power transmission.For most of the 20th century, direct current was therefore mainly used to supply power directly to power con-sumers. But in an interesting reversal,

direct current has begun making a comeback for transmission with the latest technology. Indeed, most talk about “super grids” revolves around high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission. Siemens is a forerun-ner in this field.

8. Tapping Hydropower in China: Novel High-Voltage DC System Increases Transmission Capacity by 60 Percent

By providing an 800-kV direct-current transmission system, Siemens allows China to connect a large hydropower plant to its quickly expanding grid instead of adding on additional coal plants. The remoteness of the site was the first problem. “We specially de-signed the actual transformer units to fit through the mountain tunnels by train,” explains Marcus Häusler, Tech-nical Director System & Equipment Engineering HVDC at Siemens. “The connector arms, the transformer bush-ings, as well as parts of the windings,

At the Lynn and Inner Dowsing Off-shore Wind Farms some 5 kilometers off the shore of Lincolnshire, UK, Siemens has supplied 54 of its SWT-3.6-107 turbines for an overall capacity of 194 MW, making these two adjacent projects the largest collective wind farm in the world. (A year later they

will be surpassed by Greater Gabbard’s 504 MW – see p. 36.)But the waters around these two proj-ects off the coast of Skegness are relatively shallow, with a maximum depth of around 13 meters. Siemens is going further to find ways of installing turbines at much greater depths.

You may be familiar with the slogan, “Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down.” Siemens is using the basic idea behind these toys for “floating” wind turbines: The bottom is weighted so that the turbine always stands upright. There are three anchors on the seafloor to which the turbine is flexibly at-

were then installed on site.” In total, 24 transformers with four different types are installed at each station with one spare for each type. “If one of the transformers needs to be re-placed, it could take months to get a new one out here, so we chose to keep one for each type in reserve on

site.” Once assembled, the equipment is gigantic. “We increased the trans-mission capacity by over 60 percent from around 3 to 5 GW at one go, and we are working on 6.4 and 7.2 GW in other projects.”“But the air clearance grew by 100 per-cent in the process here,” Häusler

Sharing power in China: HVDC systems.

tached; these anchors prevent the turbine from drifting across the sea. The challenge here is to provide enough weight at the bottom to keep

the turbine standing without sinking it. The problem becomes even more difficult when we realize that the turbine’s nacelle – the round casing

for the generator at the top of the tower – is filled with heavy equip-ment.

Craig Morris (right) discusses the model of the HVDC station with Siemens Technical Director Marcus Häusler.

CHINA

Shanghai

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Guangzhou

Shenzen

YELLOW SEA

Zhaoqing

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Changes in Demand Side ManagementOne level down from transmission comes the distribution grid. Here, power begins to be channeled to spe-cific consumers. At this level, man-agement of energy demand and cen-tral control of distributed power can lower peaks and raise valleys in de-mand, thereby lowering power costs overall and increasing power quality. With demand side management, power consumers can be switched on and off depending on the amount

of power in the grid. For instance, heating and cooling loads are fairly easy to shift across the day. Air-condi-tioners can be switched off for 15 min-utes without any noticeable rise in temperature in most buildings, but the relief for the grid would be clearly noticeable. Likewise, industrial freez-ing units can run full blast when electricity is plentiful and switch off for brief periods when power be-comes scarce.

As intermittent renewable energy provides an ever larger share of our electricity supply, such solutions will become indispensable. Within the next decades we will need to be able to shift part of our consumption to the hours when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining.

Behemoths in action – as this “snapshot” from UHV DC transformer shows, the equipment is the size of the entire building. Those are not ants in the pictures, they are people.

Two Siemens’ staff look over an ultra-high-voltage

(UHV) DC converter.

explains. Some of the equipment therefore has to be twice as far from the ground – 10 meters instead of 5 meters up. “If you then consider that a single piece of equipment can weigh around 30 tons, and this region is prone to earthquakes, suspending it

10 meters up is a challenge.” Where possible, Siemens suspended some equipment to allow it to move flexibly during earthquakes while retaining the required distance from the ground. Siemens’ 800-kV DC transmission could, of course, be used in Europe

or North America too, but as Director Technical Marketing & Innovations HVDC Dietmar Retzmann explains, “China’s grids are incredibly dynamic. The European grid would first have to be expanded for this technology to be used properly.”

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Energy Effi ciency Energy Effi ciency


10. EDISON in Denmark: Increasing E-Mobility

The EDISON Project (Electric vehicles in a Distributed and Integrated market using Sustainable energy and Open Networks) aims to ramp up electric mobility and to provide a way to store intermittent renewable electricity.Based in Denmark, the project focuses on “plug-in hybrids,” which you can plug into a socket and charge. As an employee who handles marketing for e-cars at Siemens explains, Siemens is also investigating the idea of battery swapping, where the entire battery system can be removed in only a few minutes and replaced with fully charged batteries.Siemens is also working to set up charging spots in public spaces. The car identifies itself via the cable con-nection controlled by the onboard unit. Only then will the charging spots release the power, Siemens says. Sven Holthusen, who represents Siemens in the EDISON project, says that, in addition to normal 3.7-kW household sockets, “We are also looking into ways of charging batteries faster via 11-kW, 22-kW, 44-kW and possibly even greater kilowatt connections.” The car would then report its charg-ing abilities to the charging spot, which would provide the fastest possible

charge. Ultimately, the goal is to allow people to quickly recharge their cars during a coffee break or lunch so that drivers can continue for another 200 or 300 kilometers without having to wait hours to charge their cars.The project was launched in March 2009 and is to be completed in December 2011.

In the electricity supply of the future, various generators – including intermittent renewables – will provide power irrespective of demand, which will then partly have to be tailored to supply. Electric vehicles may be one practical way of storing excess power, since cars generally are in motion only 10 percent of the time. Our vehicles would then not only run on excess clean power, but also export power back to the grid in case of shortfalls. Consumers will also have consoles to control their systems.

Glossary

■ Combined Cycle: A normal gas tur-bine has two parts waste heat for each part of electricity. In combined-cycle plants, this waste heat is used to drive a second, steam-generated turbine in order to increase overall efficiency.

■ Arc Distance: When an electric dis-charge occurs, electricity travels through a medium that is normally not conductive – such as air. In weld-ing, this event is used productively, but in transmission lines undesired electric discharges are generally prevented by making sure that the distance between discharging com-ponents is greater than the arc that would be created.

■ Peak Shaving: Power generation capacity has to be able to meet peak demand, but demand generally only peaks twice a day for just a few min-utes. The rest of the time, many of these generators run far below capac-ity or are switched off completely. Engineers are now working to spread some of that peak demand across the day more evenly.

■ Intelligent Meters: Conventional power meters only record power consumption. More advanced power meters are able to indicate to house-holds whether there is a shortfall or excess of electricity on the grid so that consumption can be tailored to power production.

■ Plug-In Hybrids: Hybrid vehicles currently on the market have small battery systems to improve fuel effi-ciency. Future hybrids will have large batteries and small gasoline-pow-ered engines to increase the range of the electric motor. These cars will then fully charge from wall sockets.

■ Concentrated Solar Power: Solar heat can be used not only to heat buildings, but also to generate elec-tricity. In this technology, which is to be used in the recently founded De-sertec project, solar heat is used to drive a conventional steam turbine.

Craig Morris is a US journalist and translator based in Germany. He is the author of Energy Switch (2006) and has acted as an energy consultant to the US National Renewables Energy Laboratory and the US Solar Electric Power Association. He publishes original work in the German and US press.

For further glossary terms see:www.siemens.com/glossary

9. E-DeMa in Germany: Ruhr Area Model Region

The overriding aim of the E-DeMa project is to link the fields of energy trading, energy management and information and communication tech-nology (ICT). The E-DeMa (develop-ment and demonstration of locally net-worked energy systems to the e-energy marketplace of the future) research project is receiving financial support

from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology’s frame-work program E-Energy. RWE Energy, Siemens AG, ef.Ruhr, Miele, SWK (Stadtwerke Krefeld- Gruppe) and Pro-Syst are the partners in this project.“Our goal is to reduce carbon emis-sions, increase energy efficiency, and ensure a reliable power supply,”

Talking about E-DeMa – Michael Oltersdorf, Dieter König, Heike Kück and Prof. Dr. Michael Laskowski explain the concept to author Craig Morris (second from left).

explains Prof. Dr. Michael Laskowski, who represents RWE in the project. “Besides the development of new tech-nologies, creating standards that can be used everywhere is our focus,” says Michael Oltersdorf, Deputy Manager of the project at Siemens. For instance, one goal is to find out which applianc-es could be centrally controlled by means of which technology. “We have to make sure that the cost benefits make the extra cost of whatever embed-ded systems we have to install worth the investment,” explains Dieter König of the University of Dortmund.Of course, Siemens is itself an appli-ance manufacturer, but Siemens Smart Grid Competence Manager Heike Kück says Miele was chosen as a proj-ect partner to ensure that the project would be spread more evenly across the industry. The E-DeMa project is cur-rently in the specification phase and will be rolled out in 2011 and 2012.

Genie in a box – E-DeMa uses web-enabled smart metering and load management to work together to sink energy demand and carbon emissions while maintaining reliability. Ph

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Load management of appliances Smart metering for electricity, gas, district heating, water...

In-house applications

via DSL, GPRS, PLC

Management of distributed generation

MarketplaceUsing incentives of energy exchange, energy supply companies and network operators

Market for energy services

Distribution networkOperation with online information about medium- and low-voltage grids (smart grid)

* Value-added services• Information about actual energy consumption• Information about price signal• Load management...

Bidirectional communication for technical and commercial data (e.g. meter data, measured values, commands...)

ICT Box *

Further Information

www.siemens.com/energy

www.siemens.com/energy/emobility

www.siemens.com/hvdc-facts-newsletter

www.siemens.com/hvdc

www.siemens.com/facts

www.powergeneration.siemens.com/home/

www.powergeneration.siemens.com/industries/oil-gas

Photovoltaic


turns mass into energy. After convert-ing hydrogen to helium, the sun re-leases about 4 million tons per second of energy into space. From another perspective, even if you total all the en-ergy that will be obtained forever from coal, oil, natural gas and uranium, the solar energy that reaches the surface of the earth is about two times that amount, each and every year. Convert-ing that energy into electricity is, at least in principle, a fairly simple pro-cess involving a photovoltaic (PV) sys-tem (PV = “photo” [light] plus “voltaic” [electricity]) that utilizes cells, or semiconductors, on solar panels. Today’s solar energy facilities are effi-cient, extremely powerful and profit-able. Solar energy is the fastest-growing energy technology in the world, ac-cording to the Renewables Global Status Report, recently published by the Re-newable Energy Policy Network (www.ren21.net).** Modern PV cells are de-signed to capture photons (particles of light) and turn them into electricity. The best of today’s silicon-based PV modules can reach an efficiency rating of over 18 percent; around 15 percent efficiency is now standard. Even though meteorological and envi-ronmental factors are highly variable over time, the sun is a reliable and con-stant source of energy. The amount of solar radiation that reaches the earth varies according to weather, water va-por in the air, time of day and season. Also affecting irradiation levels are par-ticles in the air such as dust and pollu-tion, the amount of solar activity oc-curring, and the earth’s distance from the sun. “The weather on a day-to-day

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Photovoltaic Energy: Solar Power for the 21st Century Several current developments and projects around the globe point to photo-voltaic energy being used in increasingly larger installations in the future. Siemens’ mission is making solar power affordable for the world, with new plants that feature technologically better, less expensive, individually cus-tomized components.

By Peggy S. Allen

When a 16th-century pope needed cutting-edge technology, he turned to Michelangelo. The great Renaissance artist was asked to guide construction on St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. Michelangelo’s dome is still the tallest in the world, and the Basilica endures as an artistic and structural wonder.Now, less than half a millennium later, the Vatican imagines a technological wonder for the 21st century. It will rely on one of the oldest power sources in our universe that we know of, the sun. According to Bloomberg,* the Vatican

hopes to build a 300- to 400-million-euro project and harness 100 MWp of photovoltaic energy. The power gener-ated will operate the Vatican radio station, which broadcasts around the world. The radio station needs only one-tenth of the energy that will be produced, and the surplus energy could meet the electricity needs of 40,000 homes near Rome. Using the power of the sun to benefit mankind is not a new idea – we are just getting better at doing it. The sun is a vast natural atomic furnace that

“The trend is clearly to bigger plants –

100 MWp or larger.”

Jens Vorbrodt, General Manager for Solar Power, Siemens Renewable Energy Division

Impressions from Ferrarelle PV power plant, Italy.

* Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601072&sid=aXLV7LFLWAGE&refer=energy** Source: http://www.ren21.net/globalstatusreport/g2009.asp

PhotovoltaicPhotovoltaic


15 percent of the PV industry.“ Newer production standards will make even bigger facilities possible,” says Vor-brodt. “The trend is clearly to bigger plants – 100 MWp or larger.” By 2020, Siemens predicts that there will be a 300-billion-euro market in renewable energy. More than half of the total renewables market will be in solar energy, and more than 40 per-cent of the PV industry will be focused on large-scale projects. In the future, that could mean PV electrical generat-ing plants that produce even more than the 300- to 500-MWp plants, while 60 MWp is the largest installation today.

Photovoltaic (PV) technology is developing rapidly, and new commercial uses are continually being discovered. Simultaneously, measurement standards for the industry and for the individual components of PV-gen-erated power are improving. The quality of industry production advances as better measurement standards become available to accurately exam-ine and compare all areas of production. PV cell (or solar cell) efficiency is the single most important measurement. The expected economic return of the PV facility is also closely related to cell efficiency.To gauge how well things are working, a PV reference cell is used. It is designed to accurately reflect the conditions of an individual project. This reference cell is carefully matched to the specifications of the site as it would operate under ideal conditions. Siemens certifies and guarantees performance and quality in all of its installations. Every project has custom-tailored components selected by Siemens to be suitable for the particular requirements of each installation. The reference cell allows comparison between expected results and performance under real conditions.“A full-service and -maintenance contract is required,” says Jens Vorbrodt, “to ensure the high performance of the PV power plant over the mini-mum 20-year expected operation period.”

PV Measurement Standards

Glossary

■ Solar Energy / Solar Power: Electromagnetic energy generated by the sun (solar radiation).

■ Photon: A particle of light that acts as an individual unit of energy.

■ Photovoltaic / PV: “Photo” (light) plus “voltaic” (electricity); the pro-cess of directly converting sunlight (photons) into electricity without mechanical conversion.

■ Photovoltaic System / PV System: A complete set of components for converting sunlight into electricity by the photovoltaic process, including the array and balance of system components.

■ Photovoltaic Cell / PV Cell / Solar Cell: The smallest part of a solar panel; the semiconductor element that converts sunlight into electric current.

■ PV Module: Packaged, intercon-nected photovoltaic cells designed to produce power when exposed to sunlight.


Peggy S. Allen is an American/Swiss freelance journalist based in Zurich. She writes about a variety of topics, but has a special interest in emerging technologies. She has worked with many US publications, including the New York Times, Newsweek and Forbes.

ized mounting system that allows 1 MWp to be generated on an area that is too small for standard solutions. Another 5-million-euro project, also in Italy, went into operation at the end of 2008. The PV plant for Ferrarelle S.p.A., an Italian bottled water compa-ny, took less than six months to real-ize, from awarding the contract to project completion. Building the in-stallation, over an area of three foot-ball fields, took less than one month. The rapid construction was facilitated by using prefabricated, lightweight aluminum supports to hold over 4,000 Sharp solar modules, which were con-nected to three Siemens SINVERT inverters and a Geafol voltage trans-former. The residents of 350 apart-ments in the town of Ricardo, north of Naples, now have efficient and environmentally friendly electricity.The USA could become another im-portant market – despite, or perhaps because of, the country’s economic downturn. “It’s a well-known fact that President Barack Obama favors solar energy development and encourages Americans to use more renewable energy,” says Vorbrodt. But he also notes that the USA are a challenging market. “It’s a big country, and each state has its own set of regulations,” he explains. In the USA, projects are often conceived and financed by inde-pendent power producers (IPPs) rather than by a government-owned utility, which can complicate development. Some states, such as California, which has a climate well suited to harness-ing solar power, show particular inter-est in many forms of greener power. In 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzen-egger upgraded an initiative that now requires California utilities to reach a goal of 33 percent renewable energy in their electrical mix by 2020. The goal of a PV facility is to produce and deliver the right electrical output at minimum cost with a short payback period and a high level of efficiency. The eventual financial goal is to reach “grid parity,” meaning PV-generated electricity is equally as economical to produce as grid power from conven-

Siemens helps its customers produce clean renewable energy by continu-ously innovating and optimizing solar power solutions. Photovoltaic (PV) energy is a rapidly growing field with a worldwide trend toward bigger in-stallations (100 MWp or more). These facilities are efficient, very powerful and highly profitable. Modern PV cells capture particles of light (photons) and transfer them into electricity. Siemens’ Renewable Energy Division offers full service and all-in-clusive delivery on PV-related products and is currently focusing on large-scale projects.

Summary

Using prefabricated, lightweight aluminum supports like these, Siemens built a photovoltaic plant in Italy in just one month that serves 350 families.

The Next FrontiersIn each of the past two years, 2007 and 2008, three out of the five biggest PV installations have been in Spain. Attractive financial incentives by the government helped spur development. Siemens, working to meet the particu-lar needs of their client, provided the electrical components for one huge project that generates 20 MWp. That plant, the largest in the world at the time it was finished, can provide ener-gy for up to 8,000 average households.Italy is a current focus for Siemens-built projects. A 5-million-euro project in Rende, Italy, has a special custom-

tional plants. Financial incentives, such as Feed in Tariffs (FiT) and net meter-ing make investment in PV power prof-itable and allow producers to sell power into the grid.Siemens is able to completely engineer the installation of plants and offer nonstandard solutions, while provid-ing performance guarantees of 20 years or more. Ongoing monitoring of the entire system and preventative mainte-nance are further services aimed at upholding performance standards. By planning and delivering a fully per-sonalized, integrated design solution, Siemens, like Michelangelo, can craft a masterpiece.

basis seems to change a lot. But on a 20-year cycle, which is the time frame used in our contracts for a PV facility, the sunshine for a given location will only vary by 3 percent,” says Jens Vor-brodt, Head of Solar Power at the Re-newable Energy Division of Siemens AG.

Not Your Father’s PV SystemSiemens’ Renewable Energy Division is currently concentrating on building big projects like the one the Vatican is planning and connecting them to on-grid utilities. Large-scale PV proj-ects – plants that produce 20, 40 or 50 MWp – make up only about 10 to Ph

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Further Information


Smart Grids


Smart Grids

Siemens’ Man in the GridRalf Christian is leading Siemens’ push toward new products and technologies to meet the challenges of fl exible electricity distribution systems integrating renewable power sources such as wind and solar energy. The development of smart grids is a major part of that job.

By Haig Simonian

A lot is currently being said about smart grids, but not everyone seems to have the same definition. What do you understand by the term? CHRISTIAN: Let’s look at where we’re coming from. Today’s grids were built 40 to 50 years ago with no communi-cations and little automation. They were made for peak loads – a bit like highways built to cope with morning or afternoon rush hour. But in many cases, they don’t use all their capacity, or only do for part of the time. “Smart grids” is an expression for dif-ferent ways of using a grid more effec-tively – especially in view of future demands. For generators, this means that in a context of rising electricity demand, existing infrastructure is used more efficiently to avoid unnec-essary new capacity investment. It’s like keeping your existing two- or three-lane highway, but managing the traffic better. For consumers, smart grids represent much greater freedom – principally the ability to consume electricity more cost-effectively at home by choosing between tariffs via a small box – call it a “pricing manager.”

That’s fine. But where does renew-able energy fit in?CHRISTIAN: Traditionally, power stations were built relatively close to consumption centers, and could be run up or down, depending on demand. Now, we’re concerned about climate change and the need to cut fossil fuel consumption for reducing green-

house gases. That means using re-newables, such as wind and solar power. But unlike traditional power stations, the electricity generated by renewables fluctuates for obvious reasons, such as clouds or time of day. As we currently don’t have very effec-tive ways of storing electricity, the only way to fully exploit renewables is through smart grids. If you want to become a greener society and re-duce your CO2 footprint, you need to consume electricity when it’s avail-able from green sources. This means steering demand. Otherwise, you could find yourself having to shut off wind parks, which are among the cleanest sources of electricity, because there’s not enough demand when they’re at peak output.

But that surely means storing electricity. Haven’t you just said that’s hard to do?CHRISTIAN: In the past, we said gen-eration followed demand: In future, we’ll need a system where generators can steer the load. If you want to ex-ploit renewables, you need smart con-sumption. Failing large-scale storage systems, we need to consider alterna-tives. Take heating. Rather than main-taining a constant temperature, the occupants of an office building could consider a range, where heating would be turned on in periods when green power was most readily available, and temperatures allowed to fluctuate somewhat thereafter. Water heating is another case. Electricity could be a

major energy source here. But rather than heating during peak consump-tion periods, water could be heated when green electricity was most read-ily available, and then stored in well- insulated tanks. Finally, although the technology is still a little way off, there’s the electric car. Just imagine battery storage require-ments and the possibility to recharge at times when significant amounts of renewably generated power make elec-tricity tariffs particularly favorable.

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Ralf Christian

Ralf Christian, 45, is Chief Execu-tive of the Power Distribution Division of Siemens Energy and President of the newly formed T&D Europe Association. With a back-ground in economics, business administration and computers, he started his career at Siemens. He rejoined in 2004 as head of the high-voltage division in the trans-mission and distribution group, moving to his present position in January 2008. Although not a sci-entist or an engineer, he notes: “My job is not to design a high-volt-age circuit breaker. The priority is to bring a lot of experience from different industries. Don’t forget, contacts between supplier and cus-tomer happen at many levels. We have the right team.”

Smart Grids


That all sounds fine, but doesn’t smart metering also have to be a part of the picture? CHRISTIAN: Smart metering will be essential for steering demand. Current-ly, householders have a flat rate, re-gardless of when they consume their electricity. If you want to adapt to the availability of renewables, you need to influence consumers to use power when it’s most readily available. That can only come about using flexible tariffs, and those in turn require in-stalling some form of communicating, intelligent metering.

What is Siemens’ role in all this?CHRISTIAN: Smart grids involve the entire electricity production and dis-tribution chain. Siemens is the only company that can offer everything from smart generation, through all the grid elements for transport and distri-bution, to a full array of products at home. From end to end, everything that’s required, Siemens is alone in having such a complete portfolio.

Hasn’t moving to smart grids been complicated by deregulation, privatization and all the other big changes of recent years? CHRISTIAN: In the past, vertically in-tegrated power utilities might have made adopting new technology, such as smart grids, easier because there was only one partner to talk to. On the other hand, one could also ask how keen monopolies were to innovate. Today, you have so many different ac-tors, there’s much more competition,

and that boosts innovation. Think of mobile phones and the huge variety of offers available from different provid-ers. Competition has stimulated new ideas and accelerated change. Siemens is in a position to talk to all the par-ties involved.

What’s the role of governments in all this?CHRISTIAN: You’ve got to distinguish between before the financial crisis, and after. Since the crisis, many gov-ernments – notably the US – have launched huge infrastructure invest-ment programs. The USA alone plan to spend more than 600 billion euro. Not all of that is going into power, but electricity is an important part. With-in electricity, about 40 billion euro in the USA are earmarked for trans-mission and distribution. There’s real money on the table now.

An integrated transmission system leads to smart con-sumption.

But even before the financial crisis, governments were growing increas-ingly active as people grew more concerned about climate change. His-torically, the priority was security of supply. With liberalization, the focus shifted to lower prices and raising competition. Afterwards came environ-ment and climate change concerns. For large-scale use of renewables, you have to have a completely new way of managing the grid. I’d say that in the past three to four years, politi-cians have started to understand that it’s not just about generation sources, but also having the right grid. So political awareness about the need for grid investment has surged.

Are any countries or regions par-ticularly ahead?CHRISTIAN: The financial crisis has changed everything. Some countries,

notably the USA, are now putting real money on the table. Previously, it was harder to generalize, as there were so many different elements in-volved. But one could say countries with particularly antiquated grid or metering systems were those moving fastest ahead, as were those with particularly active renewable energy programs because of their natural resources. Italy is a good example of the first category. It has become a front-runner in installing what I’d call “somewhat” smart meters. Past outages and a new regulatory structure, which imposes penalties for blackouts, stimulated in-vestment. Don’t forget that smart me-ters are the best way for a generator or distributor to detect problems at the local level. Before, the first hint of trouble only came when customers started calling to complain. For years, “intelligence” in the grid was only at the transmission level. Scandinavia is a prime example of the second group. Denmark, in partic-ular, has exploited its natural advan-tages and invested heavily in wind power – which, of course, means in-stalling smart grids. Northern Germany is also moving ahead, and the UK is quickly catching up with plans for off-shore wind parks.

So what does this all mean for my electricity bill?CHRISTIAN: That depends largely on whether you can benefit from “time of use” tariffs. Already, pilot projects meeting the right conditions have revealed savings of about 30 percent through changed behavior alone. Households end up consuming less power, but above all, consume it at the most cost-effective times.

So are smart grids going to save the world? CHRISTIAN: It’s not so much a question of how much electricity we save, but how much “dirty” electricity. We now have the technology to become increas-ingly independent of fossil fuels. This will require two things: an infrastruc-

ture allowing large-scale exchanges of electricity, notably that produced by big wind or solar energy parks, and the integration of tens of thousands of small-scale renewable energy sources. The former will be the backbone of the system, the latter will be what I call “pro-sumers,” producing and consum-ing power. Smart grids will make it possible to use an increasing number of renewable energy sources in the generating grid of the future.

Haig Simonian is Switzerland and Austria correspondent of the Financial Times.

The development of a sustainable and environmentally friendly energy future is not just about creating “green” methods of energy production. Just as important is the delivery of energy from the points of production to the points of consumption. Modernization and innovation in the energy grid system represents a massive and unavoidable investment of techno-logical and financial resources at public and private levels in order to keep up with increased energy demand and different means of production.For this reason, Siemens invited leading stakeholders from the fields of business, politics and science to a Pioneers’ Dialogue workshop in Germany on May 13 and 14 in the Bavarian village of Feldafing to discuss the topic “Innovative Power Grids for Europe.” The event in Germany was the first of a series of Pioneers’ Dialogue work-shops that Siemens will host worldwide on a regular basis. It was a unique forum of high-ranking key decision makers from leading European utilities, the European Commission, selected nongovernmental organizations, environmental organizations, CEOs of Siemens client companies, and lead-ing experts from Siemens AG. The goals of the forum were to develop common perspectives on innovative grids, to identify opportunities for new solutions and relevant decision criteria for innovative grids, and to set up joint initiatives to drive innovative grids forward.By promoting and actively participating in these workshops, Siemens posi-tioned itself as a pioneer in the area of innovative grids. Pioneers’ Dialogues are aimed not only at building important relationships, but also determining the expectations and requirements of key customers and stakeholders, mak-ing Siemens an important player in future discussions and developments.

Contact: Dr. Andreas Luxa, tel.: +49 (0) 91317-31791,

E-mail: [email protected]

Pioneers’ Dialogue

Haig Simonian of the Financial Times (l.) interviewing Ralf Christian about smart grids for Living Energy.

Glossary

■ Smart Grid: A smart grid is an integrated transmission sys-tem for the delivery of electricity from producers to consumers. The system is smart in that it uses digital technologies to optimize efficiency, save energy and costs and to provide increased reliabil-ity and transparency. Smart grids are being promoted in many areas to address energy, environmen-tal and reliability issues for elec-tric power.


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Further Information

www.siemens.com/energy/smartgrid


FinancingFinancing

Richard Snow darts out of the eleva-tor, his right arm already half extended to shake another man’s hand and get things going. “Ah, there you are, pleased to meet you!” Mr. Snow, a man of many roles, has no time to lose. As the Chief Executive Officer of T-Power, he is the general manager of a 450-million-euro power plant project, but also its coordinator, quasi-CFO, and the person with the mixed blessing of having to confront the press. Snow’s office – which he says with a smile is “the size of a cupboard” – is located in downtown Brussels, just a stone’s throw from the European Parliament, in the headquarters of Bel-gian chemicals company Tessenderlo, where he spends his busy workdays. At night, he returns to his Brussels hotel, where he has been staying since Ph

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April. During the week, it’s “work, work, work,” he says, and on weekends, when he flies back home to the UK, “my wife has all sorts of jobs lined up for me.” In a bid to permanently move to Brussels, Snow says he is looking for houses in the European capital, but really, when would he have time to do that? Right now, most of his time is devoted to T-Power, a joint venture between Tessenderlo, Siemens Project Ventures (SPV) and independent power generation com-pany International Power, which bought the project package from origi-nal lead developer Advanced Power. It was formed to build, own and oper-ate a gas-fired power station on the Tessenderlo industrial park in Flanders, some 80 kilometers northeast of Brussels.

T-Power: Independent’s Day in Belgium Siemens is building a highly effi cient combined-cycle power plant in Belgium for a joint venture of three companies. Financed and procured in the midst of a grim fi nancial crisis, it is the fi rst major independent power production (IPP) project this country has ever seen. Ten international banks teamed up to provide 390 million euro in loans, with the remainder put forward by the shareholders.

By Stefan Nicola

Richard Snow, Irish national and CEO of Belgium’s T-Power.


FinancingFinancing

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Groundwork for the 420-MW, single-shaft unit has already started; founda-tions will be laid toward the end of this year. But once the plant is ready for commercial operation, expected in June 2011, it is supposed to be one of the most efficient in Europe. Outfit-ted with a Siemens SGT5-4000F gas turbine, the plant can boast a near-58 percent efficiency, making it more environmentally compatible than most other fossil fuel power stations. “This is state-of-the-art technology,” Snow says proudly.But before construction could start, several hurdles had to be overcome. The project had to be carefully planned for several years, because T-Power ventured into uncharted territory when it tried to enter the Belgium power generation market, says Hans-Joachim Schulz, Managing Director of SPV, a group company of Siemens Financial

Services (SFS) that has invested in sev-eral power plants over the past years.“It’s the first project in Belgium that received a private power generation license,” says Schulz. “We now have an alternative to the established sup-pliers.”

Successful Funding: an Early Christmas Present That alternative didn’t come easy. SPV had to negotiate with banks in the midst of a grim financial crisis. “It was a really difficult time,” says Roger Ernst of SPV, adding that his negotiation team was also a bit lucky: It had asked for a binding loan offer at the end of September, when the financial crisis hadn’t yet shown its worst face. “A lot of negotiations and concessions were necessary, but we reached financial close shortly before Christmas,” says Ernst. Ten interna-

tional banks teamed up to provide 390 million euro in loans, with the remainder put forward by the share-holders. Snow says the involvement of majorplayers such as Siemens and SFS, as well as the project’s solid business plan and strong contracting helped close the deal. “The fact that it was financed at the height of the financial crisis speaks for the credibility of the project,” Snow says. The contract-ing is based mainly on a 15-year toll-ing agreement T-Power signed with Essent, the big Dutch power provider, in August 2008. The group’s energy trader, Essent Trading, has agreed to purchase T-Power’s electricity out-put and sell it on the market, “so we are independent from any market risks,” Snow says. For Essent, the plant adds flexibility to its large energy port-folio: The company provides the gas

to run the highly flexible power station according to its individual needs. According to a recent statement by Paymon Aliabadi, CEO of Essent Trad-ing, “This transaction provides Essent with an important strategic position in the Belgian power market. The T-Power tolling contract further ex-tends our commitment to develop our competitive and flexible generation portfolio in support of our market activities in Belgium.”Siemens Power, SFS and SPV – it’s easy to get confused by the many different companies involved in the project that are in some way linked to Siemens. The connection between shareholder SPV and its parent com-pany SFS has helped establish con-tacts with Siemens Power and eased negotiations, but all parties involved say investment and power plant con-struction are clearly separated.“There are no links between us and Siemens when it comes to procure-ment. Financing each other would only hurt the overall project,” says SPV’s Schulz. “As a supplier, Siemens wants to make money, and so do we as in-vestors.”The basics involved in doing that sound promising: Snow, an electrical engineer with nearly four decades of experience managing power plants in the USA and Europe, says the plant’s flexibility and Siemens’ involvement ensure that T-Power will be ready to serve Europe’s energy future – no mat-ter how that may look. “This power

plant can be operated at varying loads, and that’s very important,” he says. “Because whatever we expect a power plant to do today won’t likely be true in ten years’ time. Environmental standards will change, and there may be a need to reduce emissions, so new technologies may need to be devel-oped. Siemens has demonstrated in the past that this is within its capabili-ties, and therefore we can expect Siemens to deliver if required.”A long-term servicing agreement with Siemens ensures that T-Power will get quick replacement of spare parts, further boosting the plant’s and the region’s supply security.

Right on Schedule – Almost T-Power’s location within the Tessen-derlo industrial park is a further plus: Not only will it be placed near an energy-intense chemicals plant, it can also draw upon Tessenderlo’s excellent power grid connection – a rare treat in a densely populated country such as Belgium.Already, T-Power is doing a lot of construction in the Tessenderlo switch-yard, where transformers are installed and the grid connections established. Later this year, the company will start building a gas pipeline to connect the plant to the network of Essent’s gas provider, less than 3 kilometers away.So technically, everything is on sched-ule – had it not been for an unfortu-nate mishap linked to a subcontractor working for Siemens. The subcontrac-

tor, in a bid to prepare the building site, had leveled the ground and covered it with over 40,000 tons of crushed rubble. It later surfaced that this material is contaminated with asbestos at varying levels, from just over zero to nearly 500 milligram per kilogram. Siemens has vowed to do a thorough clean-up of the site. “We have hired an asbestos expert who is examining the ground and will pro-pose a clean-up concept to the envi-ronmental agency,” says Michael Eck-ert, of Siemens Power. Richard Snow is nevertheless confident that the project will make its shareholders very happy. “We will soon have a power plant that – if it performs the way we expect it to – will return our investors’ money and make a profit.”

Introducing Siemens Financial ServicesSiemens Financial Services (SFS) is an international provider of financial solutions in the business-to-business area. With about 1,900 employees, this Munich-based company offers a broad range of financial solutions – from equipment and infrastructure financing through working capital finance to treasury services, fund management and insurance solutions. Relying on its financial expertise and industry know-how in a wide range of sectors, SFS is active in more than 30 coun-

tries, with a focus on Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. The Siemens subsidiary, which calls some 90 percent of EURO STOXX 50 companies its customers, aims to offer customized solutions: To equip the traffic light system of the southern German city of Freiburg with efficient LED technology, for example, SFS created an individual 15-year financing plan tailored to the city’s particular needs.

Stefan Nicola, a politics and energy journalist based in Berlin, is working for United Press Inter-national (UPI) as its Europe correspondent. He also writes for the European Energy Review, a bimonthly energy magazine for decision makers.

“The fact that banks were willing to provide fi nancing at that diffi cult time speaks for the credibility of the project.”

Richard Snow, CEO of Belgium’s T-Power

Further Information


So wrote the illustrious German poet Heinrich Heine of the North Sea. Perhaps the Germans have always been able to bring a positive attitude to these waters, famed more in Britain for their grey hue and bad weather. By harnessing their power for what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, Siemens Energy will connect an impor-tant renewable source of electricity to the grid of the UK.

By Daniel Whitaker

“Calm at sea! The sunbeams flicker falling on the level water and athwart the liquid jewels ploughs the ship her emerald furrow.”

Winds of Change for Renewable Energy

When completed, the Greater Gabbard installation will look a lot like this offshore

wind farm in Lillgrund, Sweden.

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Greater Gabbard offshore substation – main platform with a weight of 2,000 tons. Rollout party at Hartlepool and prepa-rations for shipping to the offshore position.

Greater Gabbard onshore substation at Leiston: power quality for grid access of world’s largest wind farm – components for three SVC Plus systems “under construction.”

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Greater Gabbard500 MW140 x 3.6 MW

NORTH SEA

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Certainly the North Sea has always linked the UK and Germany, allowing trade and the Anglo-Saxon migration that created one-half of British culture. The British Royal Family also made this maritime crossing, after leaving their home in Hanover for several generations of new employment at Buckingham Palace. Today, the North Sea represents both a great resource and a devastating threat for the two countries. The op-portunity lies in what Heine called “the uncouth North wind” and how it can be harnessed to generate electricity. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has en-thusiastically called for a massive 33,000 MW of new wind-fueled power for the UK by 2020, while Brussels has underscored this by decreeing that a fifth of all EU generation must be re-newable by then. The attraction is clear: This power source produces zero carbon emissions, and even though generation is intermittent, the cost of wind power itself is minimal. And more specifically, the British Isles are famously windswept: 40 percent of the wind potential of the European land mass is in the UK, and its sur-rounding seas are gustier still. But the danger associated with this same stretch of sea is just as evident. Unless renewable energy replaces

our current reliance on fossil fuel, both the east coast of Britain and the north coast of Germany will join other parts of the planet vulnerable to a future of rising sea levels. All of these issues come together 25 kilometers off the coast of the English county of Suffolk in that same North Sea, where Siemens is building what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, Greater Gabbard. Some 140 giant turbines each reach 130 me-ters at blade tip – almost half the height of the Eiffel Tower – and cover an area the size of Birmingham or Munich. They can rotate 360 degrees, as well as tilt up and down, in order for their great blades to catch the winds that whip up over this stretch of water. Acting through the generators inside each turbine, 504 MW of power can be produced, transforming on two great sea platforms into a voltage of 132 kV, and then exported through undersea cables to the mainland. Back on the Suffolk shore, a substa-tion, combined with compensation equipment, will ensure a safe connec-tion to the UK’s national electricity grid. The destination of much of the flow will be 120 kilometers southwest: electricity-hungry London, where it could provide clean energy to over 280,000 homes. Together, these links

will also amount to the world’s largest sea-land grid connection. On the other side of the country, an optimistic John Willcock sits at his desk in Siemens’ Manchester base. His office has just been confirmed as the company’s first center of compe-tence for offshore grid connections outside of Germany, and he’s quick to point out that the collaboration from the Power Transmission team in Germany has directly led to the UK’s success so far. “We’re at the start, the exciting bit,” he says. The govern-ment’s 2020 renewable obligation has given a strong impetus to offshore wind farm plans around the British coast. Rob Hastings, the UK Crown Estate’s Director of Marine Estates, seems to agree. He has offered up leas-es on designated seabed on behalf of that same Royal Family that came over from Hanover, and admits that “wind energy is the only renewable technol-ogy that can deliver the required quantity by the required timescales.”All of this new capacity needs to be connected to the existing grid, which is currently set up for inland fossil plants, not to take in power along the more sparsely populated coast. That means a great deal of new investment in connections and high-voltage trans-mission networks, and John Willcock, Director of Major Projects for Trans-mission for Siemens, and his team are the people to help make that happen. While Willcock feels “there’s momen-tum now,” Greater Gabbard will still be an important test case. Siemens has the chance to show what it can do – bringing together skills from work on oil and gas platforms in other stretches of the North Sea, experience with onshore substation design, con-struction and connection, and over a century of playing a major part in the British electricity sector. There isn’t another company in the UK that spans the spectrum of energy production in this way. At Greater Gabbard, most of the components are provided by Siemens. The main external-sourced subsupply are the two offshore platforms, which are manufactured

and commissioned from UK manufac-turers in Hartlepool and South Shields. The remote surveillance systems that will monitor the turbines and the col-lector substations on the platforms come from the Siemens Industry sector.

Managing Challenges and RisksA few desks away from Willcock’s office, project manager Anwer Amara-Korba says Greater Gabbard is his “biggest and most complex challenge so far” in a successful decade with Siemens since cutting his teeth in Algeria’s gas industry. His experi-enced team brings specialist engineer-ing talent from well beyond Europe. Ahmed Shafiu, for example, who manages the vital interface with the owners of the UK transmission system, National Grid, is from the Maldives. Beyond its human resources, Amara-Korba’s team draws on Siemens’ broad – and proven – technology portfolio. The connection from the turbine is secured with the only modular circuit breaker able to be installed in wind turbines. The team’s interaction with National Grid is eased by prior inten-sive network and system studies carried out by the Siemens design experts at the Siemens head office for grid con-nections based in Erlangen, Germany.The transformers are some of the world’s most reliable, built by Siemens in Dresden and Linz. The team itself seems to hum like a perfectly efficient machine. The project is jointly owned by Air-tricity, the renewables arm of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), and RWE npower renewables, the UK subsidiary of RWE Innogy. They have chosen

Siemens as their partner for the wind turbines, with Fluor as balance-of- plant contractor, who in turn has en-gaged Siemens to design and build the grid connection.From his own headquarters in the Scottish city of Perth, Colin Hood, SSE’s Chief Operating Officer, ex-

plains that at a total value of 1.5 billion pounds, Greater Gabbard is the com-pany’s largest generation project ever. “But it won’t be the last of its kind,” he says with assurance. “The nature of the business is changing. We hope for a major project every 18 months.” It isn’t only that Europe is turning from fossil fuels to renewables as an energy source, but also, as Hood says, that “the future lies in joint ventures and long-term relationships.”The amount of funds needed for each major new offshore wind farm and the range of skills required to build them well, combined with those risks that no technological skill can over-come, mean that strong, enduring partnerships are a must. A lot of new

“Greater Gabbard represents an impor-tant step toward the increasing use of renewable energy to meet the UK’s electricity needs.”Andreas J. Goss, CEO of Siemens UK

Construction site at Leiston with two of three compensation circuits. The substation connects the 132-kV AC sea cables from the offshore platform with the grid on the mainland.

Innovation Meets Experience: SVC Plus® Tackles Changing Energy Demands

What is SVC Plus?SVC stands for Static Var Compensa-tion, a technology for power quality in high-voltage systems. Plus is Siemens’ innovative and universallyapplicable solution for grid access of renewable energies and for enhance-ment of grid efficiency.New Power Industry Challenges Power producers and system operators all over the world are faced with in-creasing demands for highly efficient power transmission, low-cost power delivery, and high system security (no blackouts).

Benefits of SVC Plus ■ Improved dynamic stability of trans-

mission systems■ Increased power quality; reduction

of risk of voltage collapse and black-out

■ Highly efficient flicker reduction in industrial applications

■ Low harmonic generation and low

noise emissions thanks to the use of modular multilever converter technology

■ Increased adaptability for limited space due to compact, standardized component design

■ Fast, efficient cost-effective solution■ Reduces time and resources needed

for project development, installation and commissioning

■ Fewer components mean simplified design, planning and engineering tasks

Outside, a nondescript white containerized solution; inside, high-tech power electronics.

Three SVC Plus systems are located in the onshore substation at Leiston, Suffolk.

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capacity will be needed, and the government will be looking to award generation licenses to consortia that can point to a solid track record in con-struction, operation and connection.Hood knows that there will always be dangers. He notes that the rolled and welded steel used for the wind tur-bines required “an armed escort from the Chinese Navy as it sailed from Shanghai through waters favored by Somali pirates – just in case.” But with the right partners, the risks can be minimized and the inevitable problems confronted. The goal is that offshore capacity building will eventually be-come “more like a conveyor belt – a program of works, rather than individ-ual projects,” says Hood.For both client companies, there was no doubt that Siemens was their pre-

ferred technology partner. “They’re a trusted supplier, and they won’t walk away from issues,” says Hood. His counterpart, Kevin McCullough, Chief Operating Officer at RWE npower re-newables, agrees. “Nobody has a track record like Siemens in offshore tur-bines and grid connections,” he says, adding that he also appreciates their commitment to service.

A Look to the Future, a Nod to the PastIt isn’t just managing financial risk that the companies involved in Greater Gabbard care about. Everyone ad-heres to the health and safety mantra “zero harm.” High turbines and off-shore platforms will always be danger-ous workplaces, the very winds that make Greater Gabbard so attractive

The Rise of Wind• Across the world, there is growing

demand for renewable energy, and offshore wind in particular. The UK will be a major market.

Greater Gabbard• Siemens is building the world’s

largest offshore wind farm in the North Sea, 25 kilometers off the coast of Suffolk, for two client com-panies: Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and RWE npower renewables.

The Role of Siemens• Siemens was chosen because of

its portfolio of products, its repu-tation for service and reliability, and in particular for its skill at grid connections.

Summary

also create peril. Ron Smith, Siemens UK’s Head of Transmission and Distri-bution, knows this from years spent working with offshore oil rigs. “The North Sea can be a dark, cold place so our focus has to be on ensuring our people are safe when working on off-shore projects.” He goes on to say, “We are developing remote diagnostic and condition monitoring solutions which will allow 24-hour monitoring at onshore control centers of all off-shore installations and which will minimize the need for physical inspec-tions by our service team.”And the underlying mood is very posi-tive. “It’s an unprecedented time of change,” says Kevin McCullough, while Ron Smith thinks it’s “the most excit-ing era in my very varied 34 years with Siemens.” And continues, “With such change, our customers are looking for a safe pair of hands and we know we can offer this given the significant experience we’ve gained over recent years. During this time we’ve been working in close and collaborative part-nerships with our traditional UK cus-tomers and it is a real pleasure to extend that approach to new custom-ers in the offshore sector such as SSE, RWE, Vattenfall and E.ON.” There is also the possibility that wind will do better than “zero harm” to the environment. Initial reports show that the monopiles on which the tur-bines rest soon become unique habitats for mollusks and marine life which attract fish. Jens-Peter Saul, Head of Siemens Energy for Northwest Europe, who oversees all of Siemens’ involvement in Greater Gabbard, says, “We are entering a new energy age.” But his pride goes beyond Siemens being the market leader in offshore grid con-nections, and wind turbines in North- west Europe including the UK.Saul adds, “Our customers expect more reliable, economical and environmen-tally responsible solutions than ever before. During the next decade, the UK grid will undergo structural change to connect renewable energy sources and ensure the government’s 2020 energy

“Greater Gabbard won’t be the last of its kind. The nature of the busi-ness is changing.”

Colin Hood, COO of Scottish and Southern Energy

Glossary

■ Compensation System (Siemens SVC Plus®): A system that uses power electronics, re-actors and capacitors to ensure that the power and voltage com-ing from the wind turbines meet the exact requirements of the UK electricity grid.

■ Monopiles: Substructures that each of the 3.6-MW turbines are built on, providing support and stability. Made of steel and hammered precisely into the sand below, they are built to with-stand the battering of the tide and winds for decades.

■ Siprotec / Sicam System: Protection, monitoring and con-trol equipment which can be re-motely controlled by the custom-er, ensuring that all is functioning well both offshore and onshore.

■ Gas-Insulated Switchgear (NX Plus 33 kV, 8DA10 13.9 kV and 8DN8 132 kV): Compact and maintenance-free switchgear en-sure highly reliable distribution of electricity with advanced safety features on both substations.

■ Transformers (132/21 kV and 33/132 kV): Situated on the offshore platforms and onshore substations, these raise and lower the power’s voltage for more efficient transport of electricity.


Daniel Whitaker is a London-based freelance journalist who specializes in writing about technology, business and economics. His work has appeared in such prestigious publications as the Financial Times, the Times, the Observer, the Economist and the Daily Telegraph, among others.

targets are met. Our customers are depending on our technology and our people to increase efficiency and lower their environmental impact, and we’re in a unique position to help them right across the energy chain, from oil and gas production through to power gen-eration, transmission, distribution and metering services.”Key to the ongoing success of the business is the development of local competency. As Saul explains, “Greater Gabbard is a good example of how building up a strong local team in off-shore grid connections as well as our wind turbine business is paying off. We have improved the relationships with our customers as we are able to get closer to them. We are far more responsive, and as a result we are now a clear market leader. Our customers know that they can contract wind tur-bines and grid connections and that Siemens can provide the systems that will work together as an integrated package. No other supplier can deliver both.”And for all of the future-oriented

“Nobody has a track record like Siemens in offshore turbines and grid connections.”Kevin McCullough, CEO of RWE npower renewables

Greater Gabbard’s goal: harnessing the power of the North Sea’s fi erce winds.

aspects of this turn in Europe’s and in deed the world’s approach to energy, there are some close links to the past. Sir William Siemens, another German who crossed the North Sea from Hamburg, was later knighted by Queen Victoria. The Siemens organization that he founded was also a great suc-cess in Britain, where he married, is buried, and where he served as per-sonal advisor to the government on the laying of international telegraph cables. Indeed, the UK headquarters is only a few kilometers from Godalming, which in 1881 saw the world’s first ever electric street lighting and its first ever commercial generation of electri-cal power – organized by Sir William. The Godalming plant was also driven by nature’s power – in this case, a water wheel.

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Further Information


www.siemens.com/energy/svc-plus

www.siemens.co.uk/energy

Capturing Carbon for a Better Climate The energy sector in Europe is coming under increasing pressure from both the European Union and the international community to reduce its emissions and improve effi ciency as global warming progresses. Together with key partners, Siemens is exploring the potential of carbon capture technology, which is expected to be a signifi cant step toward environmentally friendly energy production in both existing and future fossil fuel power plants.

By Rhea Wessel

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Glossary

■ Flue Gas: Combustion exhaust gas produced at power plants.

■ Post-Combustion Carbon Capture for Power Plants: Removes CO2 from a power plant’s flue gas using special cleaning agents before the cleaned gases are discharged to the atmosphere via the plant’s stack; technology can be used in well-known fossil fuel power plant processes.

■ Precombustion Carbon Capture for Power Plants: A method for pretreating fuel gas and extracting CO2 before combustion; treated gas volume is only 1 percent com-pared to postcombustion capture, with more than twice the CO2 con-centration.


New postcombustion carbon capture technologies will help limit emissions from fossil fuel power plants.

Renewables are gaining in importance – but fossil fuels will continue to be the mainstay of energy production.

the technology will be available com-mercially before the end of the next decade. Power plants are seen as one of the key targets for emission reductions since they are estimated to contribute about 26 percent of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions, the source of which could be isolated at stationary points. Over the past decades, the efficiency of coal-fired power plants has already increased significantly. For example, plants designed and built by Siemens reach efficiency ratings of about 46 percent with highly efficient steam turbines. On average, fossil fuel plants are forecast to increase their efficiency by 10 percent by 2030. But even if the amount of fossil fuels needed for future power generation decreases on a relative basis as a result of this improved efficiency and better availability of renewable energy sourc-es, the absolute usage will increase by almost 60 percent by 2030, accord-ing to an International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast.Hence, scientists are pinning hopes on three types of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies for environ-mentally friendly energy production: precombustion carbon capture (called IGCC with carbon capture for coal

With new environmental regulations from the European Union coming into effect, particularly those that will re-quire all new fossil fuel power plants to be ready to capture CO2, energy pro-viders around Europe are beginning to test carbon capture technology that helps limit the emissions of power plants.Companies such as German utility E.ON and Norwegian utility Statkraft are considering different varieties of technology. At a power plant near Frankfurt, E.ON and Siemens are

implementing a pilot project to test postcombustion capture technology from Siemens that is used for coal-fired plants. Statkraft is conducting a study of how carbon capture tech-nology works on gas-fired combined-cycle power plants. Both projects will move forward the development of carbon capture tech-nology that enables climate-friendly energy production. The European Union is expected to support large-scale demonstrations of postcombus-tion carbon capture technology, and

plants or IRCC with carbon capture for natural gas-fired plants), integrated carbon capture (or oxyfuel) and post-combustion carbon capture (from flue gases of conventional power plants, based on a carbon scrubbing process). Still, by adding carbon capture tech-nology to reduce CO2 emissions of plants, utility companies reduce the overall efficiency of the plant. Hence, one of the focuses of carbon capture technology studies is on increasing their efficiency.

At Staudinger Unit 5 in the E.ON Kraft-werke plant in Grosskrotzenburg, Ger-many, E.ON and Siemens have teamed up to test CO2 capture technology un-der real-world conditions after years of testing the technology in the lab. It is the first demonstration of Siemens’ proprietary technology with flue gas from coal combustion in Germany. At Staudinger, E.ON and Siemens are setting up a facility to test the solvent used, says Dr. Jörg Kruhl, Head of Tech-nology Policy, New Technologies at

Power Generation (in 1,000 TWh1)

Given new environmental regulations from the European Union, energy provid-ers around Europe are beginning to test carbon capture technology that helps limit the CO2 emissions of power plants. Siemens is offering IGCC technology for precombustion capture and developing a proprietary process for postcom-bustion capture in close collaboration with utilities. The German utility E.ON and the Norwegian utility Statkraft are considering several different varieties of technology. At a power plant near Frankfurt, E.ON and Siemens are implement-ing a pilot project to test post-combustion capture technology from Siemens that is used for coal-fired plants. The Norwegian utility Statkraft is conducting a study of how postcombustion carbon capture technology works on gas-fired combined-cycle power plants. Both projects will contribute to moving forward the development of carbon capture technology. Within a decade, the European Union will support large-scale demonstrations of postcombustion carbon capture technology, and the technology is expected to become available com-mercially.

Summary

E.ON. Kruhl and his team are in charge of examining carbon capture technol-ogies from a strategic perspective. In the pilot plant that will be operated roughly 15 months during the project, CO2 will be removed from a small por-tion of the power plant’s flue gas with special cleaning agents. This will hap-

Renewables(excl. hydro)in 2008: 581 TWh(3% of total)

Renewables(excl. hydro)in 2030: 5,583 TWh(17% of total)

20,300 TWh

33,000 TWh

Biomass

Wind

Geo-thermal

SolarBiomass

WindGeo-thermal

Solar

2008 2030

2.3% p.a.

3847

12 2

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4

14291

5268 53

Fossil fuels

41

621

13163

31

20

15

15

17Renewables

Hydro

Nuclear

Gas

Coal

Source: Siemens Energy Sector, GS4 base case 1Terawatt hours Values in percent

Oil2

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Environmentally Friendly EnergyEnvironmentally Friendly Energy

pen before the cleaned flue gases are discharged to the atmosphere via the plant’s stack. Researchers hope to gain insight on the long-term chem-ical stability of the cleaning agent and confirm the process efficiency.Kruhl says that E.ON has considered the advantages and disadvantages of all three carbon capture technolo-

ing plants, since it can be retrofitted and can be used at new plants.“We can’t change the investments we have already made in coal plants. If CCS becomes a business case, we can add the technology to existing power plants,” says Kruhl, adding, “We can verify the option to implement the technology later, showing politicians and the public that the investment is sustainable.” The test at Staudinger Unit 5 will be conducted in a column of the usual height of 35 meters but only 20 centi-meters in diameter instead of the ap-proximately 12 meters for first demon-stration projects. Kruhl says his company chose to test the technology from Siemens, given the company’s expertise in designing and constructing power plants and its know-how in chemistry. The Siemens process uses amino acid salts to clean the flue gas. The solvent features low absorption enthalpy and near-zero vapor pressure, permitting an eco-nomic and environmentally friendly capture process. Based on the project results, Siemens will then be able to evaluate the impact on the life cycle costs on the plant including operation-al costs and availability and reliability which are key parameters to optimiz-ing the technology. The partners will focus their research on measuring the conditions, such as the degradation of the solvent and the capture rates, so that both parties can gain experience with the technol-ogy and better understand how to maximize its efficiency.“We have to learn the full thermody-namic process to see how to improve it. Once this is done, the next step is to do it on a larger scale,” says Kruhl.The POSTCAP pilot project at Stauding-er Unit 5 project is partly funded by the COORETEC Initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Economics.

Siemens CCS Study for Statkraft’s Gas-Fired PlantsIn another project, Siemens has teamed up with the Norwegian utility Statkraft Energi AS to conduct a study

gies by examining the technical as well as the economical aspects. “Though we are still evaluating the matter, we have come to the conclusion that postcombustion technology has key advantages,” says Kruhl. For one, the technology is seen as an economically viable way to meet up-coming emissions standards for exist-

Structured packings are inside the ab-sorber and desorber columns to provide high-contact surface for gas and liquid.

■ Started in January 2009 with Norwegian utility Statkraft

■ To be completed early 2011■ Based in Oslo■ Technology focus: Study how to

adapt proprietary carbon capture technology to a gas-fired, combined-cycle power plant

■ Study focus: Investigate the be-havior of Siemens’ solvent under the special flue gas conditions

■ Challenge: Flue gas from com-bined-cycle power plants has a lower CO2 concentration than that of coal-fired plants, and

exhibits high oxygen content, resulting in potentially negative impacts on known solvents

■ Challenge: These types of plants have frequent changes in load re-quirements, since they make up for lack of solar-produced power when the sun is not shining or lack of wind-produced power when the wind isn’t blowing

■ Goal: Optimize carbon capture process for easy backfitting of a CO2 capture system in future combined-cycle plants

■ Funding: Private

Statkraft Project Overview (Postcombustion Carbon Capture Study)

■ Start of pilot operations: Summer 2009

■ Planned end of pilot operations: End of 2010

■ Location: Staudinger Unit 5, a hard-coal-fired power plant near Hanau, Germany, owned by German utility E.ON

E.ON Kraftwerke Project Overview (Postcombustion Carbon Capture Pilot)

Business partners: E.ON and Siemens at the Staudinger plant.

■ Technology focus: Build pilot CO2 capture system for coal-fired plant

■ Pilot focus: Test cleaning agent’s long-term chemical stability and efficiency of the process under real power plant conditions

■ Pilot focus: Optimize energy consumption of the carbon cap-ture technology

■ Goal: Gather necessary experi-ence and knowledge to provide large-scale demonstration plants around 2015

■ Funding: Private funding and funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economics under the COORETEC Initiative of postcombustion carbon capture tech-

nology in gas-fired, combined-cycle power plants. Since January, the part-ners have been studying how the tech-nology needs to be adapted to the spe-cial conditions of this particular type of power plant. Specifically, they are examining the impact of the plant’s conditions on the Siemens solvent. For example, the flue gas in this type of plant has a lower CO2 concentration than in coal-fired plants, but it has a higher oxygen content, which can lead to higher solvent degradation. Re-searchers will also study how to opti-mize the efficiency of the process for plants with varying loads, i.e. plants that produce more electricity at certain

times – for instance when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing – and less at others. The study with Siemens is particularly interesting for Statkraft, given its market ambition to be the European leader in environmentally friendly energy, including being an active con-tributor to sustainable development within the European energy market. Another reason Statkraft is participat-ing: It is preparing itself to meet the EU’s upcoming requirements that new plants be capture ready by being able to be retrofitted with the technology within the next few years.“A major part of the study will be to create a design for a gas-fired power plant and to identify all areas which could involve a low amount of pre- investment to avoid larger investments later if capture is required,” says Simen Elvestad, Statkraft’s project manager, adding, “We want to investigate how a carbon capture and storage plant could be operated in conjunction with a gas-fired power plant on a flexible basis. We will study how to ramp up and ramp down the capture process.”A third reason Statkraft ordered the study, to be finished in early 2011, is to learn about market price dynamics. As one of Europe’s leaders in renew-

Rhea Wessel is a freelance business and science writer based in Frankfurt, Germany. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Time magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal and Science Business magazine, among others.

able energy, the company is in con-stant dialogue with partners and poli-ticians about the energy market. “We want to better understand the price implications of capture technolo-gies on the power market to be a knowledgeable partner for a dialogue,” says Elvestad. The study, which has a budget of 1.7 million euro, is being conducted in three phases. In Phase 1, which is currently underway, Siemens is designing and adapting the process for this application. In Phase 2, the capture-ready plant that could be ret-rofitted with postcombustion capture technology will be developed. As they select the plant’s elements, the part-ners are looking for possible efficiency improvements and identifying where to reserve extra space for adding the capture technology at a later time. In Phase 3, the scientists will investigate the impact of the carbon capture plant on the dynamic behavior of the gas- fired power plant.“We would like to shut down the plant when market conditions are not favor-able. This becomes more complicated when a carbon capture facility is pres-ent. We want to know what kind of operating regimes would be necessary,” says Elvestad.When the study is complete, Statkraft will be able to use what it has learned in future designs and for its specifica-tions for market tenders. For Siemens, the goal is to optimize the process to enable easy backfitting of the carbon capture system for future combined-cycle power plants.

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Siemens’ postcombustion capture process has lower environmental impact and is more energy-efficient than other capture processes.

Heat exchanger

lean/rich solvent

Flue gas from desulphurization plant

Flue gas cooler

Lean solvent cooler

Lean solvent

Desorber top condenser

Siemens CO2

compression solutions

CO2 stream with minimal

impurities

Reboiler with low energy demand

Low-pressure steam from power plant

Flue gas blower

Cleaned flue gas with near-zero solvent slip

Absorber for CO2 scrubbing from flue gas

Low solvent degradation

Rich solvent

Desorber forsolvent regeneration

Low solvent degradation


Urban Integration Urban Integration

Energy as art: This architecturally striking structure in Qatar, West Bay, houses a high-voltage substation.

In the past, high-voltage substations were always industrial-looking eyesores that, whenever possible, were banished from urban centers. Today, Siemens Energy’s state-of-the-art technology, engineering and design of gas-insulated switch-gear (GIS) substations mean that utilities can integrate high-voltage substations into urban settings in a way that makes them virtually invisible and entirely compatible with densely populated districts.

By Ward Pincus

GIS Substations That Embellish, Not Blemish the Urban Streetscape

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Urban IntegrationUrban Integration


Since producing its first GIS equipment 40 years ago, Siemens has continued to develop increasingly innovative technology. This has resulted in virtually mainte-nance-free modular switchgear systems that are one-third the original size, allowing them to blend inconspicuously into urban landscapes, as with this parking deck in Doha, Qatar.

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1 Shanghai, China 2 Doha, Qatar 3 Sydney, Australia 4 Tehri, India 5 Mecca, Saudi Arabia 6 Anaheim, California 7 St. Gallen, Switzerland 8 Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Utility and power distribution compa-nies around the globe are increasingly looking to reduce transmission losses and enhance energy efficiency by bringing high-voltage and extra-high-voltage lines closer to their end users. This means placing substations in the middle of urban areas where space is limited. However, they also are de-manding that substation buildings be integrated into the surrounding urban environment in an esthetically pleas-ing manner, rather than stick out the way the plain, box-shaped industrial substations did in the past.Siemens Energy, with its in-house centers of competence in equipment manufacture, design, electrical and civil engineering, installation and com-missioning, is providing turnkey solu-tions that are setting the standard for how this new client-driven trend is being met.

Smaller Substation FootprintAround the world, Siemens is building substations in nontraditional styles that meet the increasingly small plot sizes, while also blending into the surrounding environment – or even making architectural statements them-selves. These substations are some-times underground or incorporated into other structures; they are often multistory and almost always feature design and architectural embellish-ments. To meet such complex specifi-cations, a whole range of competencies not necessary when building plain-walled structures now come into play.“Our technology, design and engineer-ing mean we are able to construct a fully integrated high-voltage substa-tion in the middle of a town. In the past, if this was done, everyone could see it, and it was unattractive,” says Bert Strassburger, Product Portfolio

Manager Turnkey High-Voltage Sub-station Solutions at Siemens AG in Germany. “Now we can incorporate the substation into the architecture or put it underground.”The challenge is not only to give sub-stations a smaller footprint in urban settings – with all the engineering that this requires – but also to ensure that the substations are reliable and have the smallest possible impact on

the surrounding urban environments, including noise and electromagnetic field emissions. The Siemens technol-ogy that achieves this is both econom-ical and ecological, with low losses and up to 90 percent reduction in electromagnetic field emissions that provides reliable protection for oper-ating personnel and environments. These are virtually maintenance-free systems with low life cycle costs and high levels of reliability and safety, an issue of particular concern in urban settings, where large numbers of peo-ple are in close proximity to the sub-station buildings.

Sophisticated Project ManagementReliability also is ensured through the secondary engineering of these sys-tems, as well as the Siemens turnkey design, procurement, installation and commissioning on site.Because of the many new and complex aspects of today’s GIS substations, much more sophisticated project man-agement skills also are required. With more than 40 years of GIS manufac-turing experience, the largest installed base of gas-insulated switchgear and a decades-long track record of superior turnkey provisioning, Siemens is well positioned to meet this new market demand.“We can provide a one-stop shop, from supporting the planning phase of construction that ensures a solu-tion that provides the best, most eco-nomical design given the available space constraints, to the engineering, installation and commissioning,” Strassburger says.Although Siemens has been manufac-turing GIS equipment for decades, its continued innovation has resulted in decreasing the original size of the GIS by two-thirds to produce some of the narrowest bays for high-voltage switchgear (as little as 800 millime-ters wide), as well as a modular struc-ture for problem-free extensions and virtually maintenance-free systems – all of which gives Siemens designers and engineers greater flexibility in

planning each substation to meet the client’s specific requirements. “The high reliability and low life cycle costs of our switchgear are based on our strong experience in design and engineering. For more than 40 years, we’ve been manufacturing gas-insulat-ed switchgear, and our innovation is brought into our product,” Strassburg-er adds. The high quality is not just a result of experience and innovation, but excellence in the manufacturing process as well. “While it’s not a semi-conductor factory, there is a slight overpressure inside the GIS manufac-turing plants to keep dust out. This clean atmosphere ensures the highest reliability, as does our expertise in the installation and commissioning of the equipment,” he says. Supporting the turnkey solution is Siemens’ access to a large selection of products from its Power Transmission and Distribution Divisions, as well as the whole of Siemens AG, while its strong relationships with subcontrac-tors and other suppliers mean Siemens can deliver in excellent quality, on time and on budget. Other turnkey compo-

nents can include instruction and train-ing courses for owner-operators and round-the-clock after-sales service. Now that Siemens’ enhanced technol-ogy has led to such a happy marriage of form and function, GIS substations are being welcomed back into urban areas, bringing increased efficiency and savings to both energy providers and users.

Case Studies1 Architecturally Integrated,

Partially Subsurface Substa-tion in Shanghai, ChinaThe major redevelopment of an early 20th-century Shanghai neighborhood into the trendy shopping, entertain-ment and leisure district of Shanghai Xintiandi meant the area would need a new substation. However, esthetic and space constraints dictated that the structure would have to be fully inte-grated into the streetscape. The solu-tion, facilitated by Siemens’ light-weight and compact GIS technology, is the 110-kV multistory Shanghai

The compact, yet powerful switchgear inside the Doha installation.

Global Reach: Innovative Siemens Substations Profi led in This Article

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Urban IntegrationUrban Integration


In order to quench the thirst for energy of megacities such as Shanghai, high-voltage substations are erected in densely built-up and busy city centers with increased regularity.

Most of Shanghai’s 100-kV Zizhong substation is located underground. The part that shows above ground is well integrated in a public park in the Xintiandi area. A cross section of the Haymarket multistory substation in Sydney, Australia.

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Zizhong substation, most of which is located underground. The one floor of the substation above ground is finished using a stone simi-lar to that of the traditional buildings in the district, while most of the facility is below ground, including the Siemens 110-kV GIS type 8DN8 with six bays. The switchgear’s space-saving design and low weight made it ideal for the small footprint required of this substation. Its high reliability and ex tremely low levels of noise and field emission (EMC) made it the ideal choice for this mixed-use urban neighborhood.

2 Design Integration of Massive Substation in Doha, Qatar Doha, the capital of Qatar, is experi-encing a construction boom that is necessitating a corresponding invest-ment in its power infrastructure. The

West Bay Super 1 substation reflects the scale of the city’s greenfield devel-opment projects, as well as a commit-ment by Kahramaa, the Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation, to have these substations – irrespective of their size – complement the sur-rounding cityscape.Despite the enormous power require-ments of the substation, Siemens was able to control the building and plot size, in part by installing the GIS type 8DN8 with 51 bays in a double-bus-bar configuration – given that each bay is just 800 millimeters wide and space utilization is further enhanced by the 8DN8’s modular configuration. As well, the GIS type 8DN9, with 28 bays in a double-bus-bar configuration in this solution, has a bay width of only 1,500 millimeters. The substation also includes six Siemens 200-MVA transformers, an 11-kV GIS with 87 panels and two 60-MVAr, 220-kV shunt reactors.As the project’s turnkey contractor, Siemens finished the building with design embellishments that reflect the contemporary feel of the surrounding district and make a striking architec-tural statement.

3 Multistory, Partly Under-ground Substation in Sydney, Australia Safety and extremely tight space constraints were the top consider-ations in developing the Haymarket bulk-power substation in Sydney, Aus-tralia. Located in the central business district, the multistory 330/132-kV substation was built across three underground and two aboveground mezzanine floors. Given the large population density of workers and residents in the area, the substation incorporated the most sophisticated safety standards through integrated monitoring, control and protection equipment and systems, as well as an SF6 gas management plan. The com-pact Siemens GIS and transformers were crucial components to meeting the space constraints, as was the Siemens building management sys-tem, which monitors key interior environmental elements such as ven-tilation, air-conditioning, lighting and power supply. The substation is integrated into a shopping complex and includes three 400-MVA transformers with a mesh 330-kV bus of four GIS bays, a 132-kV

double-bus GIS with 24 bays and a shunt reactor connected to the 132-kV bus for reactive power support and voltage control.

4 Underground Substation for Hydroelectric Power-house in Tehri, India Reliability and ease of installation were crucial considerations when in-stalling the 420-kV substation at the remote setting of the Tehri Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant, located in the Himalayan foothills in India. The 1,000-MW power plant and associated substation are located in a 400-meter-long, 45-meter-high cavern, near the base of the 260-meter-high dam, one of the highest in the world. Siemens installed a 420-kV GIS type 8DQ1 with seven bays. The compact and light-weight GIS substantially eased the cost of transportation to and installation at the underground cavern location. Given that the entire cavern had to be carved out, the narrow bay width of the GIS provided an additional benefit. Siemens also installed three 420-kV 1-phase gas-insulated high-voltage lines (GIL), with a total length of 2,400 meters, the longest gas-insulat-ed tubular lines that Siemens has installed to date. Running through a 700-meter tunnel, the gas-insulated lines link to transmission lines out-side. The extremely reliable GIL has lower transmission losses than cables or overhead lines and is well suited for laying in tunnels.

5 Multistory Substation on Small Plot in Mecca, Saudi Arabia Land comes at a premium in the densely built-up neighborhood of Harat Al Bab, adjacent to the Grand Mosque in the Holy City of Mecca. Meanwhile, electricity demand in the area is rising quickly as a number of plots are being developed and redeveloped with taller, higher-end structures than in the past. The cast aluminum casing of the Siemens 110-kV type 8DN8 GIS makes its eight bays in the Harat Al Bab substation

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■ Ventilation systems for transformer cooling (radiators) and building air-condition chillers

■ Stores/offices, entrance from public pedestrian area

■ Central control room (protection and SCADA system panels, telecom equipment)

■ Building services (e.g. air-conditioning, fire protection panel)

■ Car park

■ Primary equipment floor (330/132-kV GIS, gas-insulated transformers and reactor)

■ Cables and auxiliary supplies


Urban Integration

Some design and engineering is so integrated into the sur-rounding environment that it is hardly noticeable. Beneath this inviting park in Anaheim, California (top) is a Siemens GIS substation. Even its emer-gency exit (bottom) has been turned into an attractive feature.

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Ward Pincus, a freelance writer based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has written on health, science and technology issues for publications in North America, Europe and the Middle East. He is a former correspondent for The Associated Press in Dubai.

The traditional structure housing a substation in the Old Town area of Dubai, UAE. Siemens technology, turnkey design, procurement, secondary engineering, installation and commissioning ensure that its substations are reliable and have the smallest possible impact on the surrounding urban landscape and the people living and working nearby.

compact and lightweight enough to facilitate the engineering of a safe and cost-effective multistory solution. The special significance of the district means that the high-quality engineer-ing and manufacture of the GIS, its extreme reliability, and Siemens’ con-trol, protection and reporting equip-ment are particularly crucial compo-nents of this turnkey solution. The substation is one of several Siemens has built for the Saudi Electricity Com-pany in the highly significant district surrounding the Grand Mosque.

6 Substation underneath Neighborhood Park in Anaheim, CaliforniaThe increasing load demand, both current and future, in this high-in-come residential neighborhood in Anaheim, California, and the require-ment that it be both reliable and eco-nomical, meant the Anaheim Public Utility needed to put a substation in the area. However, it didn’t want to compromise the look of the bucolic neighborhood, so it mandated the sub-station be situated below ground, thereby making it virtually invisible and quiet. It also was critical that the equipment be able to withstand seismic events, given the location in earthquake-prone Southern Califor-nia. As the turnkey provider, Siemens not only constructed the substation but also laid soil and landscaped it with terracing, grass and foliage to create a new park for the community. The compact and reliable Siemens switchgear was a key component of this space-constrained solution that included a Siemens 69-kV GIS with eight bays, two 56-MVA transformers and a 12-kV medium voltage system with 20 panels. Only a single, partially exposed section of wall at one side of the park terracing provides access to the substation.

7 Underground Substation Integrated into Stadium in St. Gallen, Switzerland Not only are major sports venues large consumers of electricity, but

they also generally have little spare land for facilities such as substations. In this case, the Municipality of St. Gallen also wanted a solution that would not detract from the design of the Breitfeld Stadium. Siemens engineered a safe, virtually invisible and cost-effective solution that placed the two-level substation below ground. The lightweight and compact Siemens GIS facilitated the civil engi-neering and installation of the solu-tion. Prefabricated concrete slabs that can be removed with relative ease were used to cover the transformer opening.As well, Siemens’ project manage-ment expertise enabled the smooth integration of the substation con-struction, installation and commis-sioning within the larger stadium worksite. Siemens provided a GIS type 8DN9 with four bays, a 10-kV

medium-voltage gas-insulated NX PLUS with 24 panels and two 25-MVA trans formers.

8 Architectural Integration in Dubai, United Arab EmiratesThe top priority for the real estate developer of the Old Town neighbor-hood in Dubai was to ensure that the 132/11-kV substation would blend into the distinctive architecture of the surrounding area, which was built to evoke Dubai’s traditional wind tower buildings. With the full design/build turnkey for the project, Siemens hired a specialty contractor to give the building’s façade the right finish, down to the shade of exterior paint. At the same time, Siemens had to provide the full switchgear, transform-er, protection, monitoring and con-nectivity solution specified by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority,

which would run the facility.Siemens handled the entire process, including design, engineering, pro-curement, site management, con-struction, installation and commis-sioning. Siemens equipment included a 132-kV GIS type 8DN8 with eight bays and an 11-kV vacuum circuit breaker switchgear type 8BK20 with 59 panels.

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For the Breitfeld soccer stadium in St. Gallen, Switzerland, Siemens engineered a safe and virtually invisible two-level substation placed below ground.

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Essay

Clean Energy – Danish StyleDenmark has been a leader in alternative energy since as far back as the 1950s, tapping wind power and other renewable sources in its vision for a completely fossil-free energy system. In the following essay, Danish energy expert Jørgen Kjems provides an update on the latest developments.

By Jørgen Kjems, Senior R&D Consultant, Former Director of Risø National Laboratory, Denmark

Danish society is poised to make clean energy a way of life and a way of living. Hosting the COP15 event in December 2009 has triggered an avalanche of activities by government, local administrations, business and nongovernmental as well as indus-trial organizations. COP15 is seen as a golden opportunity to gain more visi-bility in global audiences and markets. Many of the projects now in the works are part of concerted efforts directly aimed at the COP15 gatherings in Copenhagen. They ride on a wave of more spontaneous initiatives by citizen groups, municipalities, universities and research institutions, individual companies and trade organizations. All of this reflects a con sensus opinion that a low-carbon economy is not

only beneficial for the environment, but is also feasible and holds potential for sustainable economic growth.Rural communities like the island of Lolland have seen a dwindling ship-yard industry replaced by a booming supply industry for wind turbines over the past decades. This has strength-ened entrepreneurial courage, and the island is now testing ground for a domestic hydrogen energy society as well as maritime algae-based biomass production. The renowned Roskilde Rock Festival has become a meeting place where scientists from the nearby Risø Laboratory debate climate issues and demonstrate polymer-based solar cells embedded in clothing. Town-ships have set ambitious goals for cli-mate-proof developments of infra-

structure and operations, spearheaded now by six proclaimed energy cities in Denmark that are working hard to become climate neutral. This has en-couraged the government to set a long-term vision for a completely fossil-free energy system for Denmark, and to commission a panel to show how it can be done.

A Long Tradition of Energy AwarenessDenmark has a history of quite radical developments and transitions in the energy system in response to emerging energy challenges and changing in-ternational circumstances. A national electric power grid was established in the 1950s based on centralized pow-er stations that were mainly fueled by

JØRGEN KJEMS, PhD, is an independent R&D consultant for the Technical University of Denmark, the Danish

Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy, and the European Commission in

the area of materials research, research infrastructure, energy and international cooperation.

He received his PhD in solid state physics from the Technical University, Lyngby, and Risø National Laboratory, and

was managing director of the Risø National Laboratory for ten years, followed by two years as the director of

the Technical University of Denmark. Dr. Kjems is the author and coauthor of about 150 scientific papers published

in national as well as international scientific periodicals. He is a member of the Danish Union of Engineers,

the Danish Physical Society, and the European Physical Society.

Illustration by BURKHARD NEIE


Essay Essay

oil. At the same time, district heating systems were established in many towns – using excess heat from power stations where feasible. The oil crisis in the 1970s induced a rapid shift to coal at power plants and larger dis-trict heating plants. It also triggered a decision to build a natural gas grid that could tap the recently discovered energy resources in the North Sea. In the 1990s, government regulation introduced an increasing amount of biomass (mainly straw) substituting for coal at power plants. Many district heating plants switched to natural gas and combined power and heat pro-duction. That same period saw the rapid growth of wind power in Den-mark. In the beginning, the expansion was land based, but it has taken place almost exclusively offshore in the last decade. About 20 percent of the total final energy consumption is based on

renewable energy sources (2008). As a result Denmark has in fact become more than energy self-sufficient – mainly due to the North Sea energy resources. Economists still argue whether all these investments have been prudent from an overall economic perspective. The buildup of wind power and the maturing of the technology behind it have required substantial subsidies from government and customers. On the other hand, this has led to a rapid growth of a successful energy indus-try, with exports growing twice as fast as the Danish industrial average.

Lessons for Other Emerging Technologies The development of the Danish wind turbine industry is an interesting story – one that contains lessons to be learned for other emerging energy

technologies. It could have been a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. However, it is no coincidence that modern wind power development took place in Denmark.Wind climate conditions in Denmark are good, and wind power has for centuries been exploited. In the 19th century, there were more than 2,000 wind grain mills in Denmark. In the early 20th century, these were replaced by other power sources, but wind power development was never com-pletely abandoned. Engineer Johannes Juul designed and built the so-called Gedser Turbine in 1957 with a capacity of 200 kW. The novel three-blade concept became the model for Danish wind turbine industry and is now a global industry standard. The energy debate in the 1970s in Denmark was spurred by the oil crisis and by nuclear power issues. Renew-ables gained both public and political support, while the established energy utilities and the industry remained skeptical. It was realized early on, how-ever, that a concerted effort on tech-nology and quality learning curves was needed. This led in 1980 to the cre-ation of a Danish test station for wind turbines at Risø, whose certificates were required to obtain government subsidies and whose databases with operational data and faults reports quickly became a valuable asset for the whole industry.

Learning from Denmark’s ExampleA synergetic loop of interactions in the wind energy community started early on. It involved manufacturers, customers, scientists and regulators. It was not without conflicts, but in hindsight it is easy to see that it was this special Danish dialogue, combined with fierce competition between the different manufacturers, that gave the industry a leading edge. It enabled the very rapid upscaling to megawatt units, and it led eventually to a domi-nant role for Danish manufacturers in the global markets.

Another important lesson learned concerns the interaction modes be-tween industry and science. Mutual trust and respect turned out to be a prerequisite for a constructive dia-logue and the efficient flow of knowl-edge. The scientists gained credibility and acceptance by agreeing to work on short-term problems facing the developers. In turn, the industry part-ners supported grant applications to tackle longer-term issues connected to wind resource modeling, the aero-elasticity theory, and numerical mod-els of turbulent flow – the results of which have become essential ele-ments of the modern design and deci-sion-making toolbox for both manu-facturers and developers of wind farms. As a result, 20 percent of the electricity supply in Denmark is now generated by wind, and two of the largest wind turbine manufacturers, VESTAS and Siemens Wind Power, have their base here.

Small Country, Big Energy GainsAccommodating 20 percent of wind power in the Danish electricity system is possible because Denmark is part of the Nord Pool power exchange mar-ket and has good interconnections to Germany. Nevertheless, fluctuating wind conditions and power consump-tion patterns, combined with inade-quate regulation, leads to less than op-

timal economic and societal use of wind resources. More end-use flexi-bility and means for shifting of loads would be beneficial. This has trig-gered an ambitious plan to introduce electric vehicles on a large scale in Denmark, with the first tests already in 2009 and a large-scale commercial launch planned for 2011. The idea is to build a system where car batter-ies are charged when the wind is blowing and used as backup power in shortage periods. As a first step, a project named EDISON was launched in September 2008 to develop the technical solutions and supporting infrastructure and to carry out tests in real-life conditions on the island of Bornholm. The tests are part of building a national facility that offers a full-scale demonstration of the power system at Bornholm. It will be Europe’s most powerful real-time power system simulator, capable of simulating larger complex electric-ity grids than any other European facility. Wind power penetration will reach 30 percent of the electricity supply when more large-scale offshore wind farms come online in the com-ing years. Danish companies intend to continue their growth in world mar-kets once the economic climate im-proves.

“Currently, America produces less than 3 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, like wind and solar. Denmark gets almost 20 percent of its electricity from wind power,” said US president Barack Obama, visiting a wind power plant in Iowa on Earth Day 2009.Denmark is a small north European coun-try with 5.5 million inhabitants and a labor force of 2.8 million (agriculture 3 percent, industry 21 percent, and services 76 percent). GDP per capita is 31,120 euro (2008 est.). Since 1980, the Danish economy has grown by 78 percent, while energy con-sumption has remained more or less constant, and CO2 emissions have been reduced. This development reflects an increase in energy and CO2 efficiency. A majority of countries have seen under-lying increases in their energy and CO2

efficiencies, but the Danish increase is among the greatest in the OECD area.19 percent of total energy consumption comes from renewable resources (bio-gas 3 percent, heat pumps 8 percent, straw 14 percent, wind 20 percent, waste biodegradable 23 percent and wood 32 percent). Wind power accounts for about 20 percent of the electricity production with 3,200 MW of installed capacity. More than 1,500 MW new offshore wind farms are planned for the next five years by DONG Energy alone. DONG is one of Northern Europe’s lead-ing energy groups. “We’ve obtained a lot of experience in this field and commit-ted to using our specialized knowledge,” says Anders Eldrup, CEO of DONG Energy.10 percent of the total Danish exports, or 7.7 billion euro, was cleantech in 2007. The sector comprises nearly 500

Facts and Figures*

companies and employs 32,000 people. In 2008, the Danish wind energy indus-try exported wind technology to a value of 5.7 billion euro, up 20 percent from 2007. “Tackling climate change is a pro-growth strategy,” says Jørgen Mads Clausen, Chairman of Danfoss, one of Denmark’s largest industrial companies and a leader in development and pro-duction of mechanical and electronic products and controls.Denmark has an ambitious Kyoto target to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses by 21 percent in the period 2008–2012, relative to 1990. So far, the emissions of greenhouse gasses have been re-duced from 79 million tons CO2 equiva-lent in 1990 to 66 million tons CO2 equivalent in 2006.

*Source: Danish Energy Agency

“It is no coincidence that modern wind power development took place in Denmark.”

“A low-carbon economy is not only benefi cial for the environment, but is also feasible and holds potential for sustainable economic growth.”


In ShortIn Short

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Siemens is expanding its global man-ufacturing network for wind turbines and is building a new production fa-cility in Lingang New City in Shanghai. By establishing this new rotor blade and nacelle plant, the company is fur-ther strengthening its environmental portfolio. This new facility is sched-uled to take up operation in the second half of 2010, initially with 400 employ-ees. The wind turbines produced in Shanghai will be for the Chinese mar-ket and for export. Siemens is invest-ing more than 60 million euro in setting up this new location.“Siemens is expanding its commit-ment to environmentally friendly energy technology in China with this new wind turbine production facility in Shanghai,” declares Wolfgang Dehen, CEO of the Siemens Energy Sector and member of the managing board of Siemens AG on the occasion of the laying of the cornerstone in Shanghai on May 22, 2009. “China could soon become the largest wind energy market in the world, and with our new production facility in Shanghai we are establishing an excellent start-ing position for meeting the growing demand of this exciting market.In addition, we are also rigorously advancing the internationalization

Wind Turbines for Chinaof our manufacturing network for wind turbines to optimally meet the needs of our customers in Asia, Europe and America.” The new production site will have a total space of 180,000 square meters and be situated at an excellent location with regard to ship-ping and traffic facilities, being in the direct vicinity of the Yang Shan deep-sea harbor. Siemens will initially pro-duce blades for 2.3- and 3.6-MW wind turbine plants. These blades will be produced using the IntegralBlade pro-cess patented by Siemens, without any glued joints that are susceptible to damage. Wind turbine plant nacelles will also be produced at this new plant. A nacelle is mounted on the top of the tower and supports the rotor as well as encloses a wind turbine plant’s major components for electric power generation; these include the gearbox, the drive train, and the control elec-tronics.The production capacity for the new facility is initially planned at 500 MW annually. The first wind turbine blades and nacelles are scheduled to leave the plant in time for the Expo 2010 international exhibition in Shanghai. Siemens has already reserved addi-tional space in Lingang for potential expansion of this production facility,

however. Since Siemens entered the market for wind turbines through the acquisition of the Danish company Bonus Energy in 2004, it has substan-tially expanded its worldwide fabrica-tion capacities. Plans for building of a new facility for wind turbine plants in Hutchinson, Kansas (USA), were just recently announced by Siemens. Siemens also recently established rotor blade fabrication facilities in Fort Madison, Iowa (USA), and in Engesvang, Denmark. The Danish locations Brande and Aalborg have additionally been expanded, and new research and de-velopment centers have also been set up in Germany, Holland, the UK, the USA and Denmark. The number of Siemens employees involved in the wind energy business has grown from 800 in 2004 to currently over 5,500. This corresponds to an increase of over 680 percent.Wind turbine plants are an important component of the Siemens environ-mental portfolio, which earned the company revenues of nearly 19 billion euro in fiscal 2008, roughly a quarter of Siemens’ total revenues.

On May 28, Siemens opened a new 3000-square-meter facility in Berlin to manufacture blades and vanes for the eco-friendly gas turbines the compa-ny already produces in its existing plant in that city. On hand to help cel-ebrate this expansion were Siemens CEO Peter Loescher and Germany’s Minister for Economics and Technology, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. The new facility, which adds 200 jobs to the 2,800 Siemens already supports in its

“Green” Production Plant in Berlin for Gas Turbine Components

Wolfgang Dehen, CEO Energy Sector and Member of the Managing Board, Siemens AG (center), and Richard Hausmann, CEO of Siemens North East Asia and Siemens Ltd. China (at far left), with customers at the opening cere-monies of the new wind turbine pro-duction facility in Shanghai.

The future is bright for wind power technology in China.

More secure, more sustainable, and safer – expectations for the energy workplace at construction sites are higher than ever today, reflecting changing attitudes around the world on how business in general is to be done. Environmental, health and safety (EHS) issues concretely reflect one aspect of this change. Customer EHS awareness is continually on the in-crease, while at the same time a trans-formation in business cultures is under way. Work safety requires conscientious implementation of EHS issues, processes and regulations, as well

A Safer Energy Workplace

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Work safety is also an issuein the energy workplace.

In ShortThe world of energy is alive and pulsing. From school projects to continental power schemes, here is an overview.

as active support by employees and management alike. Siemens Energy has been very dili-gent with EHS issues, with many work safety matters having already been addressed and implemented in the organization and additional measures currently in progress. EHS statistics are continuously compiled for all of Siemens’ new-build power plant sites, and the resulting summary is made available for specific regions and areas of activity. For example, the Lost Time Accident Frequency Rate (number of injuries resulting in at least one day of lost time × 100,000 : number of hours worked) for Siemens Energy’s new-build power plants worldwide was 0.19 in 2008.

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (left) and Peter Loescher (center) at the start of the new Berlin production facility.

gas turbine operations in Berlin, will produce approximately 14,000 vanes and blades annually. Its energy-saving design has earned the EU’s “Green Building” label. The Berlin plants com-prise Siemens Energy’s Competence Center for the production of high-effi-ciency gas turbines with ratings up to 375 MW. Gas turbines contribute nearly a quarter of Siemens’ total rev-enue, making Siemens the world’s leading green infrastructure provider.


In Short

At this year’s 2nd annual Africa Energy Awards, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, earlier this year, Siemens’ Ute Menikheim was recognized with the “Most Influential Woman in Power” award. The award was created to hon-or a woman who is an acknowledged leader in the industry, who has a vision for the power industry and is striving to attain that goal, who faces the chal-lenges of the energy head on, and who believes in the empowerment of women in the Africa power sector. Ute Menikheim is truly the embodiment of these characteristics. During her four-year assignment as Divisional Director of Instrumentation and Con-trol for Siemens in South Africa, she and her team not only emphasized uncompromising quality and value for their customers, but also advocated

the mentorship and on-the-job train-ing of many local citizens. “We did this not only to promote a healthy fu-ture for the energy industry in Africa, but also to make a difference in the lives of the people there,” says Me-nikheim. “I had a brilliant team in South Africa, and this award belongs to them, too. Step by step, we made an impact on that country.” Menikheim believes that the power industry is “the most invigorating sector – it plays a vital role in stimu-lating the economy and contributing to an improved quality of life.” The empowerment of women – providing employment opportunities for them beyond traditional menial work – was, and still is, especially close to Menikheim’s heart. “Women have the ability to make a difference, and

E-Mobility Roadshow Kickoff in BerlinAt a kickoff event on July 15 in Berlin, Siemens Energy and RWE announced their cooperation in electric vehicle technology. Siemens is not only par-ticipating in the E-Mobility Roadshow but is also a partner in implementing the infrastructure for electric cars. As a mobile electric storage system,

electric cars can be both charged as well as discharged. It can thus serve as an intermediate storage device for electric power from fluctuating generation sources like wind and solar. Equipped with modern control sys-tems, electric cars become an integral mobile component of a stable power grid and sustainable power supply. Since the batteries in electric cars can be charged at varying times, renew-able energy subject to daily and sea-sonal fluctuation can be better ex-ploited. This results in a more flexible and environmentally compatible entire energy system. In addition, elec-tric cars use energy resources much more efficiently than combustion enginesOver the course of the cooperation with RWE, Siemens will install 40

charging spots for electric vehicles at various locations in Germany. The focus will be on Berlin with 20 charg-ing spots. The experience obtained here will be integrated in the imple-mentation of a larger infrastructure for charging spots.Siemens is already active in e-mobility with its Corporate Technology depart-ment as well as in the Energy and Industry sectors. E-mobility presents special requirements for the electric vehicles as well as the design of the power grid infrastructure. Areas of research include electric power gener-ation and distribution, traffic and energy management, intelligent elec-tric meters, power electronics, soft-ware and sensors as well as the electric motors and recovery and storage of energy.

I want to be an inspiration to all women to show what can be achieved through creativity and hard work.”

The Most Infl uential Woman in Power Siemens and StatoilHydro have installed the world’s first floating wind turbine. The turbine is locat-ed approximately 12 kilometers southeast of Karmøy in Norway at a water depth of about 220 meters. The Hywind project was devel-oped by StatoilHydro, and Siemens supplied the SWT-2.3-MW wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 82 meters. Over the next two years the floating wind turbine will be tested to provide a thorough anal-ysis of this innovative concept. Hywind is designed to be suitable for installation in water depths be-tween 120 and 700 meters, which could open up many new possibili-ties for offshore wind turbine technology. Existing offshore tur-bines are mounted firmly on the seabed. However, foundations become very expensive at water depths of more than 30–50 meters.

Hywind: Installation of First Floating Wind Turbine

This can limit the large-scale ex-ploitation of offshore wind power particularly in countries with little or now shallow water areas near the coastline. The wind turbine supplied by Siemens is a SWT-2.3-82 with a 65-meter hub height. StatoilHydro is responsible for the floating struc-ture, which consists of a steel float-er filled with ballast. This floating element extends 100 meters be-neath the surface and is fastened to the seabed by three anchor wires. StatoilHydro and Siemens have jointly developed a special control system for the Hywind tur-bine to address the special operat-ing conditions of a floating struc-ture. In particular, the advanced control system takes advantage of the turbine’s ability to dampen out part of the wave-induced mo-tions of the floating system.

Siemens will be building a new pro-duction facility for wind turbines in Hutchinson, Kansas. When the plant goes into operation, the strong and increasing demand for wind turbine equipment in North and South Ameri-ca will be more effectively met. The 300,000-square-foot Hutchinson facility will produce nacelles, to be used in the company’s reliable 2.3-MW wind turbine product family. Initially, the factory’s planned annual output will be approximately 650 nacelles – or 1,500 MW. The USA have been identified as one of the world’s fastest-growing wind energy markets. Combined with the recently opened rotor blade manufac-turing facility in Fort Madison, Iowa, Siemens is significantly strengthening its US presence and increasing prox-imity to its customers there. These expansions fit very well with political developments under the Obama ad-ministration.In addition to long-term plans for clean energy production, there are immediate steps for the introduction of environmentally friendly technolo-gies, the expansion of the power grid, multiyear production tax credits, and regulations to reduce CO2 emis-sions. With President Obama’s cam-paign promises of investing 150 billion dollars over the next ten years in the development of clean energy sources, the prospects for success for the new wind turbine facilities are very promising indeed.

New Wind Turbine Production Facility for Kansas

Hywind: offshore wind power production.

Ute Menikheim with her award.

“Filling up” an electric car.

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In Short


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In April 2008, Siemens Energy opened one of the world’s biggest test centers for large compressor trains for use in the oil and gas industry. At a cost of around 100 million euro, the Mega Test Center in Duisburg, Germany (see photo, left) is currently Siemens’ largest single investment in Europe. “The test center strengthens Siemens’ position as one of the leading suppliers on the growing oil and gas market,” says Tom Blades, CEO of the Siemens Oil & Gas Division. The first year of operation saw comprehensive testing successfully completed on no fewer than 25 compressor trains. These trains, com-prising the complete steam and electric drive sys-tems, massive multistage compressors and all ancillaries can be as large as a good-sized house, weigh in at many hundreds of tons and consume enough energy to power a small town.

Best in Test

On June 15, RWE Transportnetz Strom GmbH, based in Dortmund, Germany, gave the go-ahead for the installation of a gas-insulat-ed, extra-high-voltage transmission line (GIL) at Frankfurt Airport. Siemens Energy is replacing a 1-kilometer-long high-voltage overhead line with a buried, gas-insulated extra-high-voltage trans-mission line. Two GIL systems, with a transmission capacity of about 1,800 MVA each, will connect a 380-kV transformer substa-tion in the northwest of the airport that has already been con-structed using Siemens’ compact gas-insulated switchgear.

Advanced High-Voltage Power Line at Frankfurt Airport

Siemens Energy has acquired the majority of Steinmüller Engi-neering GmbH (Gummersbach, Germany), a provider of engi-neering for innovative CO2- and NOx-reducing combustion tech-nologies and exhaust-gas cleaning systems for fossil fuel power plants. Steinmüller has a workforce of more than 60. Already well established in the US marketplace with its Environmental Systems and Service business, Siemens Energy is now expanding its environmental presence to Europe. The company will retain the name Steinmüller Engineering GmbH and continue to oper-ate from its Gummersbach location.

Siemens Broadens Environmental Portfolio

Together with other industry leaders, Siemens Energy is participating in the Desertec initiative to provide sustainable power based on renewables to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. A corresponding mem-orandum of understanding was signed for environ-mentally friendly power generation using solar ther-mal power plants in the Sahara and wind farms in North Africa. The power generated is to be transport-ed to the load centers where it is needed. A technical and financial concept is being developed.The potential is enormous. The earth’s desert regions receive more energy in a mere six hours than the total global consumption in an entire year. In the Sahara, the sun shines 4,800 hours per year (roughly three times more than in Germany) and provides the poten-tial for clean solar power. Solar thermal power plants covering an area of 300 by 300 kilometers could meet worldwide energy needs. Countries such as Morocco or Egypt also offer excellent potential for developing wind power. The Desertec initiative aims to meet 15 to 20 percent of the European power demand using solar- and wind-based electricity by 2050.

Desertec: an ambitious plan for clean power on

a continental scale.

With all of the pomp and splendor of a royal visit, the new buildings at the Siemens wind power plant facility in Brande, Denmark, were opened on June 4 by his Royal Highness Prince Henrik, the Prince Consort. Amid fes-tivities marked by flags and high spirits, the distin-guished visitor was present to inaugurate the new office and canteen buildings.Prince Henrik was welcomed by Andreas Nauen, CEO of Siemens Wind Power, Kai-Eberhard Lueg, CFO of Siemens Wind Power, and employees of the Brande facility.The visit represented extensive preparations on the part of many Siemens employees, with nothing left to chance. During a brief tour of the production facility, the emi-nent guest was shown the inside of a wind turbine nacelle. While touring the new canteen, Prince Henrik was clear-ly moved to see more than 500 employees waving flags and giving him a standing ovation. The flags of many of the 53 nations represented by the workforce at the head-quarters in Brande were flown during the festivities, demonstrating the tremendous cultural diversity within Siemens Wind Power. When the red ribbon was cut to mark the opening there was a drum solo and a cheer from the employees.

Clean Power from Africa

Wind Power Facility Buildings Opened by Danish Prince Consort

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At front from left: CFO of Siemens Wind Power Kai-Eberhard Lueg, His Royal Highness Prince Henrik, the Prince Consort, and CEO of Siemens Wind Power Andreas Nauen at the opening of the new wind power plant buildings in Brande, Denmark.

Study Project Winners from Singapore Visit Germany

Winners of the 2009 National Weather Study Project (NWSP) in Singapore earned a trip to Germany in July. NWSP was founded by Senoko Power, a leading Siemens customer in Singapore. Siemens Energy Sector Singapore cosponsors the annual competition, which aims to increase awareness among students about the impact of climate change on the environment. Participants prepare projects that demonstrate how this problem could be dealt with now and in the future. This year, the popular event attracted 235 teams from 152 schools in Singapore. Winning projects were chosen in primary school, high school and college level categories.

Singapore students touring Germany.


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Transformer with Biopetroleum insulation fluid based on rapeseed oil. This innovative development is espe-cially interesting for customers who not only place a value on the environ-mentally friendly production of power, but on its transmission as well. Modern power transformers are in-creasingly confronted by two chal-lenges. First, they are designed to re-quire low maintenance, and second, they need to be environmentally friendly. These two qualities have been combined in a new power trans-former produced by the Siemens transformer factory in Dresden, Ger-many. The new device is filled with a rapeseed oil-based ester fluid as its insulator and is hermetically sealed. Biodegradable materials are becom-ingly increasingly important for ener-gy providers. However, this must not come at the cost of performance, resilience or durability. In the case of the rapeseed oil-based ester em-

ployed by Siemens, the insulator fluid provides combustion resistance supe-rior to the mineral oils used in con-ventional devices. In addition, the flu-id is completely biodegradable, with no danger of water contamination. The fluid demonstrates slower cellu-lose aging in comparison to mineral oil. Which means longer lifetime for the transformer. The device can also be used in areas where fire protection is technically difficult and can be operated in areas with strict environ-mental controls. In addition to the advantages of the rapeseed oil insula-tor, the hermetic encapsulation pro-vides additional performance, security and construction advantages.Currently, the new transformer is in operation in Teinach in the Black Forrest. The goal is to optimize the transformer on the basis of the knowl-edge gained here, especially with a view toward broader commercial use.

Most Flexible and Environmentally Friendly Combined-Cycle Power Plant for Rotterdam

Within the complex field of com-bined-cycle steam and turbine power generation technology, one book has stood apart as the standard reference: Combined-Cycle Gas & Steam Turbine Power Plants, edited by Rolf Kehlhofer et al., has played a defining role and influenced a generation of students, engineers and developers. For the third edition of this milestone work, renowned Siemens innovator Dr. Bert Rukes and his team have add-ed their expertise in expanding and revising the book. Their contribution was to provide all of the content for a number of chapters as well as collabo-

Innovator Coauthors Defi nitive Book for Combined-Cycle Power Plants

rating on most of the others.Rukes, whose distinguished career has seen him being recognized with the prestigious Siemens Top Innova-tor Prize for outstanding innovations in fossil fuel power plant solutions, is proud to have been a part of the project. He is especially satisfied that Siemens technology is now being fea-tured in this reference that will have an important influence on the next generation of students and engineers. Rukes notes that during his many years in the industry, this was the only book that continually found itself in his hands when he looked for a

reference guide. Combined-Cycle Gas & Steam Tur-bine Power Plants is unique in that it doesn’t just pro-vide a description of a specific power plant, but exam-ines the underly-ing physical principles as well. This equips the reader with the tools to design a power plant. The book tar-gets a global audience, and its intend-ed readership consists of both stu-dents and engineers.

For its innovative gas turbine type SGT5-8000H, Siemens Energy was awarded the special “Climate Protec-tion with Steel” category of the Steel Innovation Prize. The award-winning turbine has a total weight of 440 tons and consists of about 95 per-cent steel. Despite its imposing size and strength, the machine is not just brute heavy metal, but a remark-able example of high technology that brings an important contribu-tion to global climate protection. When combined with a steam tur-bine, the new gas turbine will set a new world record for efficiency for combined-cycle power plants. The increased efficiency saves fuel, pro-tects resources, and reduces CO2 emissions. The reduction in CO2 emissions is the equivalent of 10,000 mid-sized cars driving 20,000 kilo-meters per year.The Steel Innovation Prize is award-ed every three years by the Steel Information Center of the German steel industry. The new Siemens tur-bine uniquely combines convention-al heavy-machine construction

Not just a pretty face. Rapeseed oil is now being used in advanced electric transformers.

methods with ultramodern manufac-turing technology. The turbine con-sists of more than 7,000 individual parts ranging in size from minute to mammoth. On its own, the SGT5-8000H can generate 375 MW of elec-trical power. When combined with a steam turbine, this is increased to over 570 MW, enough to power a city of 3 million people, such as Berlin.In addition to the Steel Innovation Prize, Siemens’ operational SGT5-8000H power plant Irsching 4 near Ingolstadt has been recognized as a specially designated area by the “Germany, Land of Ideas” initiative under the auspices of German presi-dent Horst Koehler.Ph

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Signing ceremony for the new CCGT project.

Usually, when we think of rapeseed oil, it is in the context of salad dressing or low-cholesterol cooking. Siemens, however, has developed a hermetically sealed power transformer with the

Siemens Energy was recently awarded the Steel Innovation Prize for its power-ful, yet efficient and environmentally friendly SGT5-8000H gas turbine (shown above).

Siemens Awarded the Steel Innovation Prize for New Turbine

Siemens Energy is currently con-structing one of Europe’s most envi-ronmentally friendly fossil-fired pow-er plants in the Netherlands. The state-of-the-art combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant, which will be located in the Europoort area of Rotterdam Harbor, was ordered by Enecogen, a partnership of the Dutch Eneco and Danish DONG Energy utili-ties. The 700-million-euro project, which includes a long-term service contract, is scheduled to go on line in late 2011 with an output of about 870 MW. Thanks to their modular design, plants of this type offer more adaptability to specific customer and site require-ments. With NOx emissions of less than 10 ppm and a plant efficiency of more than 59 percent, the Enecogen project will be one of Europe’s most ef-ficient fossil fuel power plants in its class. Due to the very competitive and flexible project offering, Siemens Energy Solutions had been chosen as turnkey supplier. In addition to the main components – gas turbine, steam turbine and generator – Siemens will also supply the entire electrical and I&C systems and handle long-term plant maintenance. The Enecogen part-ners see the use of high-efficient and flexible gas-fired power plants and gas storage as a means to balance the more volatile wind power production.

70 Living Energy · Issue 1/ November 2009 · www.siemens.com/energy/living-energy

© 2009 by Siemens AG, Berlin and Munich

All Rights Reserved

Publisher:

Siemens AG

Energy Sector

Freyeslebenstrasse 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

Responsible for Contents: Mark Derbacher

Chief Editor: Konstanze Lucya

Editorial Coordination: Elisabeth Ahlers

Editorial Team:

Oil & Gas: Lynne Anderson

Fossil Solutions: Heike Bernard

Fossil Products: Gerhard Neubert

Fossil Instrumentation & Electrical: Eva Klink

Service Fossil: Yvonne Post

Carbon Capture and Sequestration: Sylvia Ohresser

Wind Power: Oliver Lönker

Solar Power: Jens Vorbrodt

Power Transmission Solutions: Ute Rohr

High-Voltage Substations: Lydia Wagener

High-Voltage Products: Dirk Helbig

Transformers: Emily Abold

Energy Automation: Tobias Knieling

Medium Voltage: Ilona Enders

Transmission and Distribution Services: Kathrin Dirksen

Corporate Messages: Peter Stuckenberger

Trade Fairs and Congresses: Kristin Zeug

Production: Norbert Moser

Concept, Editing and Design:

independent Medien-Design, Horst Moser, Munich, Germany,

in cooperation with Primafila AG, Zurich, Switzerland

Deputy Chief Editor: Viviane Egli

Lead Text Editor: Janice Binkert

Art Direction: Horst Moser

Layout: Claudia Diem, Mathias Frisch, Franziska Misselwitz

Editorial Coordination: Christa Löberbauer

Photo Editor: Susanne Nips

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All rights reserved.

Trademarks mentioned in this document are

the property of Siemens AG, its affiliates, or their

respective owners.

Subject to change without prior notice.

The information in this document contains

general descriptions of the technical options

available, which may not apply in all cases.

The required technical options should there -

fore be specified in the contract.

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Siemens Energy – Customer Magazines

Venture With its variety of news and project fea-tures the magazine leads technical deci-sion makers into the world of industrial turbomachinery and oil and gas solutions.

Living EnergyThe magazine is de-signed especially for en-ergy leaders. In-depth reports on innovations, trends, perspectives and applications. Cus-tomers, experts and Siemens representatives discuss current issues related to the energy market.

The latest information and background for energy leaders

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Calendar Trade Fairs and Congresses

Trade Fairs and Congresses

Title Location Short Description Date Contact

SECA Conference San Jose, Siemens EA Customer October 11–15, www.secaweb.com CA, USA Association (SECA) Conference 2009

AEIC Kiawah Island, AEIC’s 125th October 14–17, www.aeic.org SC, USA Annual Meeting 2009

Zero Emission Brussels, ZEP 2009 General Assembly October 20, www.zeroemissionsplatform.eu/ Belgium 2009 events

BWEA 31 Liverpool, UK’s leading annual October 20–22, www.bwea.com UK renewable energy event 2009 conference and exhibition

China Wind Power Beijing, Important high-level wind October 21–23, www.chinawind.org.cn/2009 (GWEC) China conference and exhibition 2009 index_en.htm

Transform 2009 Berlin, Kofax Annual Conference October 26–27, www.kofax.com/go/transform Germany 2009

Electricity Expo Ho Chi Minh City, 15th Vietnam Saigon October 29–31, www.vfabric.com/electric Vietnam Electricity Expo 2009 2009

ENR Moscow, Electrical Power Networks December 1–4, http://english.expomenu.ru/ Russia exhibition and seminar 2009 expo/electrical_gridshtml _of_russia_*2009.html

POWER-GEN Las Vegas, 22nd Conference and Exhibition December 8–10, www.power-gen.comInternational NV, USA for Power Generation 2009

World Future Abu Dhabi, Platform for Sustainable January 18–21, www.worldfutureEnergy Summit UAE Future Energy Solutions 2010 energysummit.com

ELECRAMA Mumbai, 9th International Exhibition January 20–24, www.elecrama.com India of Electrical & Industrial 2010 Electronics Industry

NRECA – Atlanta, Conference and Expo for February 10–15, www.techadvantage.orgTech Advantage GA, USA Electric Cooperative 2010 Engineering, Operations, and Information Technology

Siemens participates in the following trade shows and conferences around the world which are scheduled for late 2009 and early 2010.

Compliance HelpDesk “Tell us”In order to justify the trust placed in Siemens by customers, partners, shareholders and employees, the integrity and trans-parency of business processes is the top priority. For this, it is essential for Siemens to find out about any breaches, partic-ularly contraventions of the Business Conduct Guidelines. The “Tell us” function provides worldwide, 24/7 facilities for making statements, either online or by telephone, and in any of up to 150 languages. The call center and the website

facilities are operated by an external provider specializing in the secure and confidential handling of sensitive content. Incoming messages are not traced, neither is the sender automatically registered.

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Order no. E50001-G100-M164-V1-4A00Printed in GermanyDispo 11900190058 M 09090.2Printed on elementary chlorine-freebleached paper.All rights reserved.Trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of Siemens AG, its affiliates, or their respective owners.Subject to change without prior notice. The information in this document contains general descriptions of the technical options available, which may not apply in all cases. The required technical options should there-fore be specified in the contract.






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