Achieving Net Zero at Scale Requires Creative Collaboration at Scale
The urgent need to achieve global decarbonization requires an unprecedented level of cooperation, across industries and geographies
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Delivering a Decarbonized Future in Utah’s Great Basin
Today the largest municipal electric utility in the country, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), receives power from two coal-fueled generators located in Central Utah. Thanks to a new partnership between Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) and Mitsubishi Power, these generators will be replaced by a hybrid natural gas and hydrogen gas-fueled facility that will help pave the way towards a decarbonized future.
IPA, a subdivision of the State of Utah consisting of 23 municipalities, began the Intermountain Power Project (IPP) in the 1970s. The Project includes 35 participants with operations in six Western states. LADWP is the largest purchaser of power and serves as IPP’s Operating Agent.
Faced with changing electricity markets and regulatory policies, participants in the Intermountain Power Project began discussions almost a decade ago to determine what to do when power purchase agreements from the original project expire. The result was IPP Renewed, which will adapt IPP to meet the increasing demands of decarbonization with innovative, clean energy solutions.
As part of IPP Renewed, Mitsubishi Power will supply the new facility with two JAC advanced class gas turbines capable of running on a 30 percent hydrogen blend from day one, increasing to 100 percent hydrogen no later than 2045.
“All of the key components of this project – including the safe production, transportation, storage, and utilization of hydrogen – are mature technologies that have been deployed for decades in other industries,” said IPA Spokesman John Ward. “IPP Renewed will use the Intermountain Power Project’s significant existing infrastructure to integrate those technologies at scale, supporting the rapid decarbonization of this corner of the Western power grid.”
Additionally, Mitsubishi Power is deeply invested in the next generation of end-to-end renewable energy systems with projects like our Advanced Clean Energy Storage project to create solutions for hydrogen production and seasonal storage. Located adjacent to IPP, this partnership with Magnum Development will create the world’s largest renewable energy storage project. Utilizing wind, solar and geothermal resources to produce “green” hydrogen through electrolysis, the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project will leverage Magnum’s access to the largest geologic salt dome in the Western U.S. to develop underground storage caverns, each capable of storing enough renewable hydrogen to provide 150 GWh of clean energy.
Learn More: https://www.ipautah.com/ipp-renewed/
Long-Duration Energy Storage: The Key to Achieving Power-Sector Decarbonization
Market forces, innovation, and regulatory policies are setting the stage for a clean power system, and utilities will play a central role in reshaping the energy economy. While non‑renewable resources are being retired to make progress towards decarbonization objectives, there is a rising need for renewable, dispatchable energy. Adequately meeting the needs of today’s energy grid with renewable resources requires a shift towards long duration energy storage. Download Mitsubishi Power’s new Playbook to learn the key drivers of clean power adoption and decarbonization, and three strategies to bridge the current market gap.
The Decades-Long Partnership That Powers Colombia
In the early 2000s, Colombia was running out of gas. This was a problem for Termocandelaria Power Limited’s gas-powered plant in Cartagena, one of the country’s largest cities. In order to survive, the plant needed to convert to a dual-fuel facility that could be powered by a combination of gas and diesel fuels—all within 11 months.
Termocandelaria didn’t need a mere vendor, they needed a partner. That’s what they found in Mitsubishi Power, with whom they have partnered for more than 18 years to meet Colombia’s accelerating demand for energy.
The plant required a conversion of its W501F units to create the necessary dual-fuel capability. The W501F is a gas turbine Mitsubishi Power originally developed in tandem with Westinghouse. Today, multiple OEMs are capable of servicing the W501F machines, but only Mitsubishi Power was able to meet Termocandelaria’s urgent timeline—pulling together a team of experts in response to the bid and creating a bespoke solution to present to Termocandelaria.
“We were the first non-Mitsubishi Power plant in Latin America who said goodbye to the original manufacturer and completely turned to Mitsubishi Power technology,” says Luis Miguel Fernandez Zaher, CEO of Termocandelaria Power Limited. “That was a very big leap for us back in 2006. We had high stakes. We needed Mitsubishi Power to deliver for the survival of our company. It was a relationship built on trust and transparency, and of being objective and truthful with one another.”
There’s a close proximity we feel from all levels of the Mitsubishi Power organization. It’s like a family relationship. We see our upcoming partnership with Mitsubishi Power as a significant strategic leap in our operations in Colombia.
– Luis Miguel Fernandez Zaher
CEO of Termocandelaria Power Limited
Partnering closely with Termocandelaria to create a unique technological package specific to their plant, Mitsubishi Power helped not only meet but exceed the timeline for converting the facility to a state-of-the-art, dual-fuel plant. It also positioned Termocandelaria as a leading employer within the region, while expanding the capacity to create reliable and efficient electricity for the country at-large.
Now, after a decade of continued expansion throughout the Colombian energy market and strong financial performance, Termocandelaria and Mitsubishi Power are embarking on another significant project. To meet increasing energy demand, the country’s plants must both expand and diversify their energy sources and capacity. Termocandelaria and Mitsubishi Power are leading the way on this groundbreaking project by converting the flagship plant into a combined-cycle facility by 2022.
Converting a simple cycle plant into a combined cycle plant is no small task—it’s a significant undertaking. But yet again, Mitsubishi Power came through with a creative solution. Rather than the alternative of building an entirely new plant, an innovative upgrade will allow Termocandelaria to expand the capacity of the plant by 74 percent and improve efficiency by more than 35 percent.
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