Page 17 - Piston Engine-Based Power Plants

10 Piston Engine-Based Power Plants

Table 1.2 Breakdown of Annual Installation, 2013 16, by Engine Size
Engine Size Number of Units Annual Installed Capacity (MW) Principal Fuel
50 500 kW .10,000 10,000 30,000 Diesel
500 kW to 5 MW .10,000 30,000 50,000 Diesel
5 10 MW .100 1000 5000 Natural gas
10 50 MW .100 1000 5000 Heavy fuel oil, dual fuel
Source: Decentralized Energy 3

The other important category of engines is called natural gas
engines, or simply gas engines, because they are designed to burn natu-
ral gas alone. Gas engines are cleaner than diesel engines and can be
highly efficient. They tend to be more expensive too. These engines are
popular in North America, Europe and Japan. Many of the plants
where these engines are in use are combined heat and power stations
but there is increasing demand for power-only plants to support grid
renewable generation. Between 2013 and 2016 the average annual
installed capacity for this type of engine was 4000 5000 MW, making
them the second most popular category after diesel engines.

Complementing these figures, estimates by Navigant Research 4
suggest that the annual installation of diesel generating sets will
increase from 63 GW in 2015 to 104 GW in 2024. As already noted,
this is likely to be driven by nations where power demand is rising
but supply is unreliable. The research company has also estimated
that annual reciprocating gas engine installations will reach around
27 GW by 2024, a significant increase compared to the figures in
Table 1.1. 5

Further analysis of the annual installation of reciprocating engines
is provided by the figures in Table 1.2. This shows annual installations
for the same period, 2013 16, as in Table 1.1 but in this case broken
down by engine size. For the smallest engines with generating capaci-
ties in the range 50 500 kW, the annual installation rate was over
10,000 units and the annual installed capacity was up to 30,000 MW.

3 Dina Darshini, How big is the gas-based distributed power generation market? And will it grow?
Decentralized Energy 30 January 2017.
4 https://www.navigantresearch.com/research/diesel-generator-sets
5 https://www.navigantresearch.com/research/natural-gas-generator-sets