VENDOR SPOTLIGHT: MITSUBISHI POWER

Mitsubishi Power Americas, headquartered in Lake Mary, Florida, employs more than 2,300 power generation, energy storage, and digital solutions people. Its power generation solutions include gas, steam, and aeroderivative turbines; power trains and power islands; geothermal systems; photovoltaic (PV) solar project development; environmental controls; and services. In addition, its energy storage solutions include green hydrogen, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and services. It also offers intelligent solutions that use artificial intelligence to enable autonomous operation of power plants. Mitsubishi Power is a power solutions brand of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).

“The power sector is undergoing deep transformation driven by decarbonization, digitalization, and decentralization,” said Bill Newsom, President and CEO, Mitsubishi Power Americas.

He sees three key technologies to watch in the next phase of the energy transition: hydrogen storage at scale, AI-driven decision making, and distributed power where people need it.

Decarbonization
The company now delivers all of its heavy-duty gas turbines hydrogen-ready and offers services to convert existing natural gas turbines to run on hydrogen. Its gas turbines are currently capable of running on a blend of 30% hydrogen and 70% natural gas by volume to reduce carbon emissions. They are being developed to run on 100% hydrogen (or natural gas if needed) in the future.

“As the energy landscape began changing, we realized that we needed to grow beyond being just an OEM to become a total solutions provider and partner,” said Newsom.

Mitsubishi Power has developed Hydaptive green hydrogen packages that integrate gas turbines, renewable power, and storage technologies. They augment renewables with on-demand power from gas turbines and with lithium ion battery storage and green hydrogen production and storage.

Commercial utility-scale hydrogen projects are now being developed. The Advanced Clean Energy Storage hub in Delta, Utah, will be the world’s largest energy storage facility, a joint development of Mitsubishi Power and Magnum Development. The hub will produce green hydrogen, store it in underground salt caverns, and dispatch it as a clean fuel for power generation, transportation, and industrial applications. Two of these salt caverns will be built in the first phase to provide 150,000 MWh of storage capacity each.

Mitsubishi Power will also supply two M501JAC power trains for the Intermountain Power Plant in Delta, Utah, adjacent to the Advanced Clean Energy Storage hub. It will transition from coal, to natural gas and then to green hydrogen. The 840 MW combined cycle plant will use a blend of 30% green hydrogen and 70% natural gas at commercial operation in 2025 and 100% green hydrogen no later than 2045.

Further hydrogen projects include: a partnership with Texas Brine Company to develop large scale, long-duration hydrogen storage solutions to support decarbonization efforts – Texas Brine and its affiliates have salt positions in New York, Virginia, Texas and Louisiana; a strategic partnership with DT Midstream to advance hydrogen infrastructure across the U.S.; a joint development agreement with Entergy to develop hydrogen-capable gas turbine combined cycle facilities, green hydrogen infrastructure, nuclear-supplied electrolysis facilities with energy storage, and utility-scale battery storage; a joint development agreement with Puget Sound Energy on large-scale, carbon-free renewable generation and storage; and a joint development agreement with El Paso Electric to develop a roadmap to a carbon-free energy mix, including a strategy to convert EPE’s Newman Power Station from natural gas to a blend of up to 30% hydrogen, then to 100% hydrogen. In addition, Mitsubishi Power has retained CITI as Strategic Financial Advisor to help expand hydrogen infrastructure across North America.

Digitalization

Advances in technology are transforming how power is generated, distributed, and stored. Digitalization is the core of the “smart power plant” of the future. Mitsubishi Power has developed a suite of digital and service-based solutions called TOMONI to make power plants smarter, more resilient, and more profitable.

“TOMONI is the digital brain powering smart energy systems,” says Newsom. “It serves as the nucleus of the power plant, controlling all operations, driving all decisions, storing all information, and learning how to optimize performance.”

It comprises six capabilities geared toward maximizing asset performance, optimizing operations, and improving flexibility to enable energy systems to integrate the new energy mix.

• Cybersecurity: Multi-layered defense, remote monitoring and diagnostics, and real time support to strengthen cybersecurity and compliance.
• Controls: Systems that automate critical activities and enable energy mix integration to improve asset visibility, agility, and efficiency, while providing a framework for predictable lifecycle support.
• Digital Twin: A combination of modeling, analytics, and AI to create a complete virtual replica of the entire energy system to support better O&M decision-making, increase efficiency, and lower emissions.
• Applications: Cloud and on-site applications to increase plant operational flexibility and improve cost and performance.

• Asset Intelligence: Software that collects, analyzes, and interprets data from hundreds of power plant sensors, transforming it into actionable insight.
• Smart Products: Systems and components with built-in intelligence, fault-tolerance, and self-calibration.

DECENTRALIZATION
The energy sector is adding distributed generation and storage for uses that include isolated areas, areas on regional grids prone to outages, and areas with intermittent supply problems caused by the expanded use of renewables on the grid. Mitsubishi Power’s aeroderivative gas turbines, which deliver 31 to 140 MW of on-demand power, can address many of these infrastructure shortcomings, including providing grid resiliency and emergency power.

The FT-8 MOBILEPAC gas turbine is a 31 MW mobile generation package. The MOBILEPAC design enables fast-track installation and commissioning, and demobilization and relocation with minimal crew. The compact, lightweight self-contained packages may be moved by land, sea, or air to meet changing demands. The equipment has multi-fuel capability: natural gas, liquid fuel, propane, and field gas. The field gas capability enables units to be situated where natural gas can be captured and used to power equipment on-site.

The FT4000 unit provides one of the highest power outputs of any aeroderivative gas turbine generator packages available in the market, offering 70 to 140 MW of power with low installed cost, easy operation and maintenance, and low total cost of ownership. The reliability, operational flexibility, and high power density of the FT4000 SWIFTPAC make it the ideal partner to intermittent renewable power. Developing hydrogen-fueled aeroderivative power gen solutions will help decarbonize power production further.

“Hydrogen, AI, and distributed energy are just three of the key areas we are focusing on in the move toward net zero carbon by 2050,” said Newsom.
For more information, visit amer.power.mhi. com and aero.power.mhi.com. ■