McIntosh Power Plant
| McIntosh Power Plant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| location | |||
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| Coordinates | 31 ° 15 ′ 19 ″ N , 88 ° 1 ′ 47 ″ W | ||
| country |
 United States
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| Data | |||
| Type | Compressed air storage power plant (CAES) + gas turbine power plant | ||
| power | CAES: 110 MW el (storage capacity 2860 MWh) GT 1 + 2: 2 × 120 MW GT 3 + 4: 2 × 180 MW |
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| operator |
PowerSouth Energy Cooperative (formerly Alabama Electric Cooperative ) |
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| Start of operations | CAES: 1991 GT 1 + 2: 1998 GT 3 + 4: 2010 |
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| Website | powersouth.com/mcintosh_power_plant | ||
The power plant McIntosh ( English McIntosh Power Plant ) is a combined compressed air storage and gas turbine power plant in McIntosh , Washington County in the southwest of the US state of Alabama .
The compressed air storage power plant ( English Compressed Air Energy Storage , CAES for short ) built in 1991 is one of only two such plants worldwide (next to the German Huntorf power plant ).
technical structure
Compressed air storage power plant
The McIntosh compressed air storage power plant was designed and built by the American turbomachinery and plant engineering company Dresser-Rand on behalf of the Alabama Electric Cooperative . In 1991 it went into commercial operation. Like most storage power plants, the system is used to store energy in the form of compressed air during off-peak times and to retrieve it again during peak load times. The expansion turbine has an electrical output of 110 MW, which can be called up within 14 minutes of starting time if required.
Technically, the system is a further development of the Huntorf compressed air storage power plant , which has been operated since 1978 . As in Huntorf, in McIntosh, too, natural gas is fed into the expansion turbine like a conventional gas turbine . The decisive further development compared to Huntorf is that in the McIntosh power plant the waste heat from the gas turbine exhaust gas is recovered in a recuperator in order to preheat the combustion air of the gas turbine. This increases the efficiency of the entire system to 54% compared to only about 40% in Huntorf. For 1 kWh of electrical energy produced, around 0.69 kWh el. (Compressor for injection) and 1.17 kWh thermal (natural gas injection with withdrawal) are used.
The storage cavern in the salt dome below the McIntosh power plant is 450 to 750 m deep and has a nominal storage volume of 538,000 m³. The pressure varies between 45 and 76 bar. Charging takes up to 45 hours with a power consumption of 60 MW on the compressor. When the storage tank is fully charged, the stored air is sufficient to maintain the output of 110 MW for 26 hours. This corresponds to a stored amount of energy of 2860 MWh, almost five times as much as in Huntorf.
Gas turbine power plant
In 1998 the power plant was supplemented by two conventional gas turbines (without storage), which are used in open cycle operation as a peak load reserve. In 2010, two more open-cycle GTs were added.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c McIntosh Power Plant. (No longer available online.) PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, archived from the original on October 29, 2010 ; Retrieved November 25, 2010 .
- ↑ a b Achmed AW Khammas: Compressed air. Book of Synergy, Part C. Retrieved November 25, 2010 .
- ↑ a b c CAES. (No longer available online.) PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, archived from the original on October 18, 2011 ; Retrieved November 25, 2010 .
- ^ Eva Mahnke, Jörg Mühlenhoff: Saving electricity. (pdf) Renews Special, Issue 29. (No longer available online.) Agency for Renewable Energies, April 2010, formerly in the original ; Retrieved November 25, 2010 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Franz Meyer: Compressed air storage power plants. (pdf) project info 05/07. (No longer available online.) BINE Information Service, FIZ Karlsruhe, May 2007, archived from the original on April 20, 2011 ; Retrieved November 25, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Fritz Crotogino, KBB UT: Compressed air storage power plants to compensate for fluctuating electricity generation from renewable energies. (pdf) Energy forum "Compressed air storage power plants". (No longer available online.) DENA , formerly in the original ; Retrieved November 25, 2010 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
