Changing Gas Composition
This project was started to ensure that the interest of the gas turbines users is taken into account by defining new rules and regulations on the future gas compositon. And thereby to ensure that we do not get any problems supplying energy to the Dutch consumers in the future due to malfunction of gas turbines tripped on new defined gas.
On October 6 an internetconsultation was set out by Projectteam Nieuw Aardgas. We studying all the published documents by the Dutch Governement and the Projectteam on this subject very carefully (you can download them via this link).
After that we consulted the DGTA's Technical & Innovation Committee on November 24, during the Committee meeting. This resulted in a reaction of the DGTA on November 28. Main issues are the lead times of the change and the uncertainty of the definition of the gascomposition. Also the "mix of measures" to assure that the costs of the change are minimal must not lead to solutions that will provoke a (other) social discussion (such as local gas mixers).
Concerning lead times; in this industry lead times are in years due to the impact of new technolgy and the investments that have to be made. We can not agree with the way lead times are being organized right now bij the projectteam right now. They are dealing with lead time of change by concerning every year x if the leadtime for the change must be shifted to year x+1.
Concerning gas composition; there are a lot of definitions already made. But one of the most important is not. We want to have a clear definition on the maximal shift of the Wobbe-index in time. We already made that clear in a letter that was send December 2010 (one year ago) and are dissappionted that is not in place yet.
This March a small projectteam has decided to write a position paper on this subject, taking the composition rules as they are right now into account. We do not have the time to wait for the composition rules to be clear. The "gasrotonde" is being implemented anyway.
We are planning to have the paper ready end of this month. We are very pleased that institutes as TU/e and UT are willing to help us with that. Next to the paper we also want to investigate the Enecogen powerplant. They run on gas from the gate terminal and have made technical adjustsments to do so. This can also be a way to look at the problem: see how we can avoid problems by making technological adaptions. It also can be a way to explain costs made to keep hardware running.
Availible to read:
The complete letter of November 28 can be downloaded here.
Al the publish documents of the Dutch Government and Projectteam Nieuw Aardgas can be downloaded here.
A postion paper of the ETN (Europian Turbine Network) on this subject can be downloaded here.
If you want more information on this project, please contact pieter.peelen@dgta.nl