Wärtsilä has announced new hybrid power plants, engines+storage and energy storage solutions to power markets globally.
Finland-headed marine and energy technology major Wärtsilä has announced new hybrid power plants, engines+storage and energy storage solutions to power markets globally.
According to a statement, these new and innovative solutions provide it’s existing and future customers added value by utilizing energy storage technology together with the traditional engine based power generation. Wärtsilä also announced it would be offering stand-alone energy storage solutions.
In April 2016, Wärtsilä announced its entry into the solar photovoltaic (PV) business by introducing solar PV power plants and engines+solar PV hybrid power plants. These hybrid solutions are now further extended with energy storage technology, a market Wärtsilä says is now being created and gaining momentum.
Today, large markets exist for stand-alone energy storage, for example in the USA, United Kingdom (UK) and central Europe. Hybrid solutions including energy storage are increasingly becoming financially attractive, for example in areas where fuel prices are high and the penetration of renewable power sources is significant.
Complete optimised hybrid solutions
By providing hybrid power plants, engines+storage Wärtsilä also introduces energy management system (EMS) to optimize the usage of hybrid power plants. In July 2016, Wärtsilä announced its co-operation with Greensmith, a leading provider of EMS software.
According to Wärtsilä, Greensmith’s GEMS platform is the most widely-deployed energy storage software solution enabling advanced and proven energy storage systems in the world. With GEMS, hybrid power plants run in an optimal way at all times ensuring ideal utilization of both the engines and the energy storage solution.
We are very excited to introduce these new solutions to our customers. Adding energy storage technology to our existing engine based power plants enables our customers to have instant power while saving fuel, maintenance costs and reducing emissions. With a world-class EMS software platform we solidify our systems integration capabilities, said Javier Cavada, President of Wärtsilä Energy Solutions.
These new solutions it says provide customer value in many ways, including:
- Optimized spinning reserve – availability for spinning reserve markets even when the engine plant is off-line
- Fuel savings by utilizing energy storage and optimizing operation of engines in a hybrid power plant
- O&M optimization and savings
- Regulation compliance
- Reduced emissions
With these new solutions, Wärtsilä does not only enter the energy storage market but also becomes a systems integrator as we are able to optimize the usage of our hybrid power plants with EMS software, said Risto Paldanius, Director, Energy Storage at Wärtsilä Energy Solutions.
