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Newcastle Herald
  • 1 year ago
How gas peakers work
Transcript
00:00Hi all, and welcome to this Energy Academy video about peaking plants.
00:14Colloquially known as peakers, they refer to any power plants that generally only run
00:19at times of high, or peak, demand.
00:22For the purposes of this video, we're referring specifically to gas reciprocating engine peakers.
00:28The important word to note here is engine, and these work in the same way as the engines
00:33you find in your car, as opposed to turbines, which are more like what you get in jet engines
00:39on planes.
00:40These plants burn gas, and sometimes hydrogen, which causes pistons to move up and down,
00:45or back and forth in a reciprocating movement.
00:49In engine terms, these are very efficient.
00:51However, we typically think of them as being less efficient than closed cycle gas turbines,
00:57or CCGTs, meaning that they use more gas to produce the same amount of energy.
01:03The latest peakers have an efficiency of just over 40%, whereas CCGTs can achieve efficiencies
01:09of above 60.
01:11Generally, they turn on or ramp up quicker.
01:14They can start from cold in a couple of minutes, and sometimes less, meaning that they can
01:18be called upon by suppliers at shorter notice to help balance the system at times of high
01:23demand.
01:24CCGTs, by way of comparison, take around 50 minutes to get up to full power.
01:30In cases of high demand, peakers can be turned on rapidly to meet demand on the network,
01:35thus minimising the risk of outages on the grid.
01:39Gas peaking plants are considered flexible assets due to these faster ramp times.
01:44In the UK, we generally have two types of peakers, gas and diesel.
01:48In the early years of the capacity market, a lot of diesel peakers were built, but over
01:53the years they have begun to be overtaken by gas peakers, due to the latter being more
01:58cost effective.
02:00Peakers in the UK generally have capacity market contracts.
02:04Some also take part in the wholesale market, in the store market, and in the balancing
02:09mechanism.
02:10And to find out more about how these markets work, you can watch our other Energy Academy
02:14videos.
02:15I'll see you soon.

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