(Source: Rolls-Royce Ltd.)
Growing pressures to cut operating costs, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets and other factors are driving shale oil companies to look for more efficient alternatives to power their operations. Our hybrid E-frac solutions effectively address these challenges by intelligently integrating gas power generation with a battery energy storage system (BESS). Compared with a turbine E-frac setup, as in the following Use Case, they offer many advantages, including substantially lower operating expenses, carbon emissions and total cost of ownership.
Optimized operational cost savings
To highlight the potential energy cost savings of a hybrid E-frac solution compared to a turbine E-frac setup, we calculated a business case example using HOMER Pro® simulation software.
High operating expenses versus smart cost efficiency Gas turbine generators are often delivered as single units that are not flexible to up or down scaling. They are very inefficient to operate, negatively impacting fuel consumption, emissions and especially costs. Also, they require specialized technicians to maintain, are sensitive to high humidity and ambient temperatures, and offer no failover protection.
Hybrid E-frac solutions, in contrast, enable flexible genset adjustment, thereby optimizing operational efficiency–and costs–in several ways. The gas gensets used are designed for maximum productivity with no derate in hot, humid environments. The integrated battery energy storage system (BESS) optimizes genset load profiles by storing excess power and supplementing it where needed within 1.5 milliseconds. Intelligently orchestrating it all is a microgrid controller.
Compared with a conventional turbine E-frac setup, hybrid E-frac solutions offer a much better value.
Investing in a hybrid E-frac solution
In this Use Case, a turbine E-frac setup with a baseline load of 18-20 MWe and a peak demand of 20-21 MWe was replaced by ten 2.5 MWe gas gensets and two battery energy storage systems (BESS) with a capacity of one MWh each. The difference in CAPEX spending alone for a hybrid E-frac solution ($16.6m) versus a turbine E-frac setup ($26.25m) amounts to a savings of $9.65m.
Total CAPEX savings: US $ 9.65m
Saving on smart energy management
Turbine E-frac
The conventional frac setup was powered by one gas turbine generator running at only 50-65% load capacity. Fuel efficiency and emissions reduction were not ideal and operating expenses were very high.
Total operating costs per year: US $ 3.17m
Hybrid E-frac solution
In the case of the hybrid E-frac solution, eight gas gensets ran at 80% load capacity. Two served as backup. The microgrid controller of the battery energy storage system managed the gensets fully automatically, turning them on and off, as needed, to optimize fuel efficiency, emission reductions as well as operating and maintenance cost savings.
Total operating costs per year: US $ 0.97m
Total savings per year: US $ 2.2m
Payback period
Investing in a hybrid E-frac system makes good financial sense in many respects, particularly when you consider that the full-spread savings make up for it within 3.1 years. Significant additional savings are achieved through reduced maintenance hours and costs as well as extended power generation asset utilization.
The investment benefits of a hybrid E-frac solution are even more dramatic when you factor in the ongoing operating and maintenance costs associated with a turbine E-frac setup.
The payback period is 3.1 years
Hybrid E-frac Setup
Modular, scalable and highly flexible, hybrid E-frac solutions are a brilliant full-site power concept. In addition to optimizing load profiles and asset utilization through surplus energy storage capabilities, they stabilize frequency, voltage and power supply availability for a wide range of on-site applications.
To download this Use Case and learn more about our hybrid E-frac solutions, click here.
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