Utility the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) in the US state of Nebraska will use hydrogen-capable gas turbines as part of its plan to decarbonise its generation portfolio. The OPPD will use the turbines to support its plan to develop 600MW of solar resources backed by 600MW of natural gas capability.

The utility is in the middle of a decarbonisation study, to be completed by year-end, with hydrogen being one of the technologies considered. “The OPPD is focused on a decarbonisation plan for our generation fleet,” says Mary Fisher, the utility's vice president for energy delivery and nuclear decommissioning.

Typically, equipment has to be replaced when economies move from one energy source to another. But the order of the hydrogen-capable natural gas turbines from manufacturer Siemens will enable the district to burn gas in the short term but hydrogen in the future, when production starts to come onstream.

“Electrolysis is currently an expensive option" Fisher, OPPD

“The SGT6-5000F that will be supplied to OPPD is currently capable of 30pc hydrogen today. Siemens Energy has set a target of getting the turbine and others in our portfolio to 100pc hydrogen capability on or before 2030,” says Olamide Ogunduyile, director of North America sales for decarbonised energy systems at Siemens.

The adoption of hydrogen-capable power equipment arrives after a decade-long run of growth for natural gas in the US power sector. But the EIA sees this growth slowing, forecasting that US power sector demand for gas will fall from a 2020 peak of 31.74bn ft³ to 29.39 bn ft³ this year and 29.25 bn ft³ in 2022. The fall is due to the pace at which wind and solar are starting to meet demand.

Hydrogen production

The production of hydrogen for any hydrogen-capable turbine is still an open question, however. “Electrolysis is currently an expensive option,” says Fisher, who says the OPPD’s study is examining the relative costs of different fuels and technologies.

Other US power sector projects are also looking to integrate hydrogen capability but have not yet formed visible plans to produce green hydrogen profitably. The Long Ridge Energy Terminal project in Ohio—a combined cycle gas power plant—has laid out a plan to start blending hydrogen in the near term while heading towards 100pc green hydrogen by the end of the decade.

But it has left the task of actually producing green hydrogen to its partner, gas-to-power company New Fortress Energy.

Siemens’ Ogunduyile observes that the US Department of Energy has earmarked US regions for hydrogen where production and demand are in close proximity.

One advantage that many western US-sited projects have is that solar potential, and especially wind supply in the Great Plains, means the cost to produce green electricity will be exceedingly cheap.

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Author: Gregor Macdonald