Meet the Mobile Technology That's Powering Remote and Recovering Communities

If you need an electricity supply in a hurry, there are numerous companies out there that can provide mobile power plant technology to generate tens, or even hundreds, of kilowatts. But imagine you need tens or hundreds of megawatts not in months or years but as soon as humanly possible—what then? Natural disasters create an obvious need for rapid-response power plant technology, but there are many other reasons why you might want large-scale electricity generation equipment that can be moved easily and deployed quickly.

Mobile Power Plants

At their most basic, mobile power plants consist of an engine to convert the chemical energy in fuel into motive power, a generator that converts this motive power into electricity, and a control system to manage the process. They range in size from small generating sets with capacities of just a few kilowatts up to installations made of multiple power plants, together capable of generating hundreds of megawatts. Motive power can come from diesel-, gasoline-, or natural gas-fueled reciprocating engines (those that use pistons to drive a crankshaft, such as the engines in cars), or from gas turbines operating on multiple types of fuels.

Power Density Matters

The trick to delivering large amounts of power in this way is to achieve a high power density that facilitates a high degree of mobility. This is where the gas turbine comes into its own. A typical trailer-mounted, gas-turbine-based power plant can generate 20–30 MW or more. The time from order to first power can be a matter of weeks, even to remote locations, as long as inventory is available. Once installed, gas turbines can reach full power in as little as 5 minutes.

Other advantages of gas turbines include a much smaller footprint per unit of power generation capacity than diesel or gas reciprocating engines and the ability to run on a wider variety of fuels. The most commonly used fuels are natural gas, diesel, and jet fuel, but the latest gas turbines will also burn naphtha, kerosene, or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Where several fuels are available at varying prices, users can switch between fuels (often without shutting down) to lower their operating costs.

Powering Communities Worldwide

The earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011 meant that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) lost 21 GW of generation capacity. This included multiple nuclear reactors, such as those at Fukushima. There was an urgent need for electricity for rebuilding and disaster recovery.

To meet this need, TEPCO had five mobile gas turbine packages airfreighted to Japan for immediate availability. These were followed by other power modules and the necessary transformers and consumables. Within days of the last delivery of equipment, 203 MW of power were available across two sites—Hitachinaka and Yokosuka.

More recently, South Australia has turned to gas-turbine-based mobile power to avert power outages and reduce the need for load shedding during the summer months. Up to 276 MW of capacity were added with the installation of mobile gas turbines at two substation sites in Edinburgh and Lonsdale.

In Algeria, a huge country where most of the population lives along the Mediterranean coast in the north, mobile gas-turbine-based power plants are being used to bring power to the cities during the hot summer as well as desert communities, according to Metka, while transmission lines are constructed to connect them to the grid. As the grid advances, the mobile plants are easily moved and redeployed to other power-hungry communities.

Meanwhile, in the Indonesian archipelago, a fleet of mobile power plants is bringing power to islands that are not yet connected to grid supplies, reports PEI.

Varied Applications

Customers looking for large-scale mobile power solutions are generally looking for a particular mix of two advantages: speed—of installation and deployment—and mobility. The balance that a customer needs to find between response speed and mobility depends on what applications they need the fast-track electricity supply for. In the case of emergencies arising from natural disasters or other short-term power needs, where the speed of the response is the main driver, these applications include:

• peak shaving
• distributed generation
• grid stability and support
• bridging power
• industrial generation

Peak shaving involves meeting peaks in demand where available power generation capacity is unable to cope, due to scenarios like extreme temperatures driving up air-conditioning load and lack of rainfall in countries dependent on hydroelectricity.

Distributed generation (DG) at strategic locations in a city or region can compensate for inadequate or inefficient transmission lines by placing the power generation nearer to the demand. In this way, DG can help avert blackouts, supply reactive power (MVARs) to improve overall system efficiency, and provide essential backup if the grid fails.

Providing utilities with bridging power when existing power systems are undergoing maintenance, or being replaced or upgraded, can help the utility avoid or reduce supply interruptions.

Installing a dedicated power supply at an industrial facility can be cost effective where grid supply is unreliable or temporarily unavailable, especially for processes where unplanned outages can cause costly disruption.

Reciprocating engines (those that use pistons to drive a crankshaft, such as the engines in cars), whether fueled by natural gas or diesel, are a common solution for temporary or fast-track power, even at a large scale. However, they struggle to compete with gas turbines on both speed of response and mobility. This is mainly because, for their size and weight, gas turbines pack a big punch. This is why they have become the prime mover of choice for the aviation industry—one of the most demanding examples of the need for high-density power delivery in a mobile package.

Rental or Purchase

If the equipment is needed for months rather than years, it can be rented rather than purchased. Some companies will even provide the balance of plant and handle installation, commissioning, operation, maintenance, and fuel management.

Power from mobile solutions will generally cost more per kilowatt-hour than power from conventional plants. Higher equipment costs can be well offset by minimal civil works or savings in case of relocation. However, electricity has become so indispensable to modern life that—where options are limited—that will often be a price worth paying.