Wartsila eyes India to invest inh2 engines
Also in discussions with stakeholders for grid-level balancing and storage tech
Wärtsilä, which provides energy and marine technology solutions in India, is now looking to diversify into newer fuels such as hydrogen, apart from providing grid-level energy storage solutions. Speaking with Business Standard, Sushil Purohit, president, Wärtsilä Energy and executive vicepresident, Wärtsilä Corporation, said during Covid, economies across the globe are looking at a decarbonised future and there will be upsurge in investment in renewable energy, storage, and balancing technologies.
Since 1980, Wärtsilä has delivered 250 power plants to India with a total output of over 3,500 Mw. It also does operation and management for 35 power plants (including Boiler Turbine Generation stations), with a total output of over 1,300 Mw.
As India accelerates the deployment of renewable energy, Purohit said grid-level energy storage is the need of the time and they are in active discussions to deploy the same. Wärtsilä along with Lappeenrantalahti University of Technology LUT, a Finnish public university, studied the prospect of a carbon neutral or 100 per cent renewable energy-run power system in India by 2050.
“This would require 4,000 Gw of renewable capacity. Also a balancing capacity – both in form of energy storage and gas engines — is needed. These two technologies are where Wärtsilä is a market leader,” said Purohit. He said the company is in discussions with the load despatch centres and power distribution utilities (discoms) in India to explore integration of renewable energy. “India will see a business activity in the space of green fuel-based storage and balancing technologies 2030 onwards,” he said.
For preparing power systems towards increased share of renewable energy in the grid, Purohit said storage should be part of the transmission assets at the grid level. “The grid needs to be balanced. So, a green fuelbased quick start-up and energy storage is needed in the system. These two needs to be incentivised so as to attract the interest of the private players,” he said.
The company is in discussions with several stakeholders in India for grid-level balancing and storage tech, Purohit said, but did not disclose any names. Currently, India awards energy storage projects as part of solar and wind power projects.
Only a few utilities, such as Tata Power Delhi Distribution, have invested in standalone battery storage systems in order to balance the grid, as more green energy gets infused.
Wärtsilä recently won a contract from Oil India (OIL) to construct a 30Mw power plant at the company’s bottling-cum-extraction facility in Assam. The plant will operate with Wärtsilä’s W20V34SG gas engines running on natural gas fuel from OIL’S captive gas fields.
The company also acquired Greensmith Energy Management Systems, a market leader in grid-scale energy storage, software, and integrated solutions. “This acquisition has enabled us to rapidly expand our footprint in the energy storage market globally and position us as a premier energy system integrator,” he said.
Purohit said they are testing their power generation engines for using hydrogen. “Our engines can currently run on up to 25 per cent hydrogen blend in the fuel. We are testing to increase the share of hydrogen in our engines further and run on 100 per cent in the future,” he said.
In the hydrogen segment, the company will look at business prospects in both the energy and transport market. “We are the largest provider of engines to the shipping sector. We are working on building engines that can run on 100 per cent green fuel, such as synthetic gas, methanol, ammonia etc.,” he said, adding that they are working on technologies and engines that will accelerate the decarbonisation of sea transportation.