The Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) hired Mitsubishi Power to build a natural gas facility in Oklahoma — a fast-reacting plant to meet the needs of GRDA’s evolving electricity grid. This plant replaces the remaining coal-fired unit at the Grand River Energy Center.
It represents a market shift towards using advanced-class gas turbines for peaking applications. But it also typifies the transition from coal to natural gas.
The “GRDA is demonstrating its continuing commitment to cleaner, more flexible, and reliable energy production,” said Bill Newsom, president and CEO of Mitsubishi Power Americas. The GRDA has awarded Mitsubishi Power two projects in the last 10 years for its Grand River Energy Center.
The GRDA is Oklahoma’s most prominent public power utility.
President Biden aims to decarbonize the power sector by 2035 and to be net zero by 2050. His administration considers clean energy to be any facility that produces no carbon dioxide or can capture and bury carbon. That keeps natural gas in the fold, the most significant part of the country’s electricity mix.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration says that natural gas comprises 40% of the electric generation portfolio while coal is at 19% and falling. Natural gas has replaced coal because it releases about half the emissions when power plants burn it. Wind, solar, and hydro make up 20%, although their outlook is much brighter. Nuclear energy makes up 18% of the country’s electricity composition, representing 60% of its carbon-free generation.
Consider Duke Energy and Southern Company’s Georgia Power: both companies have traditionally been coal-heavy but have vowed to shed all of their coal plants by 2035. Meantime, Xcel Energy has said it will get 80% of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2030. Avista Utilities, which runs on hydropower and biomass, has said it will be carbon neutral by 2027. Eversource Energy, a distribution company, has promised to do the same by 2030.
The American Gas Association adds that natural gas delivers three times more energy on the coldest days of the year than the electric system on the hottest days.
Meantime, the natural gas pipelines can also move hydrogen — up to 20% by volume. The goal is not to leave any stranded infrastructure and to possibly retrofit those systems to meet the needs of a low-carbon world. Moreover, wind and solar use natural gas to kick in when the weather does not hold up.
BP says the coal-to-natural gas transition has reduced carbon emissions by hundreds of millions of tons over the last decade. By 2040, it adds, renewable energy will comprise 14% of the electric generation pie — meaning that natural gas will have to kick in and back it up. It also says that the technologies and the economics underlying carbon capture and sequestration are improving.
Natural gas has a positive outlook even in a decarbonized world. Its central role may ultimately be to back up renewables.
General Electric said renewables will make up 61% of all new power plant installations through 2026. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, a 1% increase in “fast-reacting” fossil fuel technologies leads to a .88 percent increase in renewables over the long run.
Meanwhile, Wärtsilä’s engines can incorporate hydrogen (25%) and natural gas. But the company is working hard to ensure those machines can operate entirely on hydrogen — ideally, “green hydrogen” produced from clean energy sources. The engines will be “future-proofed,” meaning utilities will not have stranded assets a decade from now.
“When we look at the future of gas, it is there for the long term,” said Amit Kulkarni, general manager for product management at GE Power in Atlanta, in an interview. “More renewables are coming onto the grid, and we will see more flexible natural gas plants — those that can turn up and down much faster.”
