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Mitsubishi Power Americas, Inc. selected Emerson, a global leader in software and engineering, to manage the largest green hydrogen storage and production facility. This industry-leading hub will integrate renewable energy by producing green hydrogen and storing it for long-term energy storage. Mitsubishi Power will benefit from Emerson’s experience in hydrogen production and automation software expertise, to improve safety, reduce costs and simplify maintenance throughout the facility’s lifecycle.
It is expensive and difficult to store excess renewable energy during winter and spring in its natural state so that it can be used during peak summer seasons. Advanced Clean Energy Storage will make use of renewable electricity to power electrolyzers that produce green hydrogen. The hydrogen produced will be stored underground in salt caverns. This will allow it to be released when needed to produce clean electricity from hydrogen-fueled turbines. This will stabilize the grid and provide a new path to decarbonization.
Michael Ducker, senior vice-president of Hydrogen Infrastructure at Mitsubishi Power Americas, and president of Advanced Clean Energy Storage I, stated that “Generating and storing electricity with zero carbon emissions is critical to meet the world’s sustainability power generation needs. Emerson’s expertise in hydrogen and its digitally connected architecture design will reduce the time it takes to start up and create a safe, reliable, and easily scalable transmission network to support our goals for renewable energy storage and production.”
Advanced Clean Energy Storage will transform renewable energy via the 220-megawatt electrolyzer bank, to produce up to 100 tonnes of green hydrogen every day. Two salt caverns will be used to store 300-gigawatt hour (GWh) worth of energy. The battery storage capacity in the United States, however, is only 2-GWh using lithium-ion batteries. There are up to 100 caverns at the Advanced Clean Energy Storage Hub.
The first-of its-kind integrated facility will store short- and long-duration hydrogen for use at the Intermountain Power Project Renewed (840-MW). Intermountain POwer Project (IPP) Renewed will start-up with 30% (vol.) hydrogen fuel in Mitsubishi Power M501JAC gasoline turbines. It will transition to 100% (vol.) hydrogen by 2045. Emerson and Mitsubishi Power have joined forces to develop digital solutions for IPP Renewed. This collaboration will optimize plant performance, increase reliability, and produce cleaner, more reliable power.
Bob Yeager, President of Emerson’s power- and water businesses said that managing the variability of demand and supply is one of the most difficult issues in power distribution. Mitsubishi Power successfully used the digital automation stack in order to create a sustainable, innovative solution to this problem. This allows providers to use peak-production renewable energy during peak consumption hours.
Mitsubishi Power will utilize Emerson’s Ovation(tm), integrated control and safe platform, to maximize the Advanced Clean Energy Storage Hub’s production efficiency. This will also help ensure safety operations. Ovation will allow for reliable monitoring and control of the renewable hydrogen production process, as well as emergency shutdown and fire and gas protection. To reduce complexity and risk, the platform will also collect and contextualize data from a variety of third-party systems at the plant. Emerson’s PACSystems RSTiEP I/O will facilitate field connectivity and allow for project changes without increasing timelines or increasing costs. AMS Device Manager will monitor plant assets and improve safety, reliability, and sustainability.
