At 220 meters long and 102 meters wide, Sleipnir entered service as the world’s largest crane vessel, with two 10,000-tonne revolving cranes. GE was chosen to provide a high-performance electrical power and propulsion system powerful enough to meet the operational energy needs of such a ‘sea giant’.
 

Challenge
 

Sleipnir’s career would be faced with critical operational roles, safely lifting and moving some of the largest assets at sea out in challenging deepwater conditions, from wind farm installation to rig decommissioning.

Playing such an important role in the offshore sector’s energy transition, it was important her own systems would be energy-efficient and reliable.

In addition to helping to reduce emissions through GE’s Ship’s Electric Grid power and propulsion solution, Sleipnir was the world’s first crane vessel with dual-fuel engines running on either marine gas oil (MGO) or liquefied natural gas (LNG).
 

Solution

GE’s solution includes an integrated electric propulsion and power network system, conceived and customized to meet requirements specific to the project:

• Generating and distributing electricity to power the vessel’s entire, considerable onboard systems, and therefore enabling its ability to perform on-contract.
• 12 sets of 8-megawatt (MW) generators, eight units of 5.5MW propulsion motors, medium-voltage switchboards, transformers, and MV7000 drives.
• Digital Suite Visor remote monitoring and diagnostics system.
• Entire power system designed for fault tolerance in accordance with Lloyd’s Register’s Rules and Regulations (DP AAA).

Benefits
 

Coupled with GE’s electric propulsion system, the vessel is able to achieve lower emissions when on operations, helping our customers get the job done competitively and sustainably.

• GE’s optimized power architecture is more compact than standard solutions, achieved through our SeaLab team’s system integration expertise.
• Benefitting from GE Power Conversion’s Digital Suite with advanced sensors connected in the network, to monitor the health of each piece of equipment in real time and signal possible malfunctions.
• Together, these measures result in a compact, yet highly sophisticated solution, which facilitates operations while helping to minimize downtime and increase availability.

With a GE Ship’s Electric Grid at 11 kV and >130 MVA, this is highly-efficient, flexible power and propulsion at scale.

Challenge

The Queen Elizabeth Class, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of  Wales, are the UK Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers. The ships, more than three times the displacement of the Invincible Class they replaced, represent a step change in both size and capability.

This scaling-up came with significant energy demands, both for propulsion and for the ship’s intense operational mission systems, as well as crew and vessel services. The aircraft carriers would need a way of providing all this power as efficiently and safely as possible.

GE Power Conversion set out to design a configurable, scalable and integrated Electric Ship power architecture, pulling through proven equipment from other naval and commercial platforms, to help minimize cost and risk.

Selection of an Electric Ship Solution
 

The Queen Elizabeth Class Carriers are the first RN ships to have been designed from the outset as an integrated full electric propulsion (IFEP) vessel, without legacy constraints, allowing us to help maximize the benefits of an Electric Ship. But what are they?

The electric architecture design philosophy focused on :

• Superb flexibility : the ability for any power source to supply any load and functionality, through a microgrid of distributable power.
• Availability : scalable power management through graceful network degradation, rather than having to build in ‘redundancy’ (over-sizing the power system).
• Survivability : considerable layout flexibility providing protection through separation of equipment.
• Efficiency : only draws on the power it needs, reducing fuel consumption and helping to stay on mission for longer.

The Design Process – Success through Collaboration
 

GE’s Power Conversion business has been involved in the Aircraft Carrier project from the early competition phases through to design, manufacture, test, installation, commissioning, trials and support.

After the formation of the prime contractors’ Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA), Power Conversion was selected as preferred power and propulsion partner for the Electric Ship, including HV Electric Grid, Propulsion and System Integration elements of the power and propulsion systems.

The formation of a formal Power & Propulsion Sub-Alliance in 2007 between Power Conversion, Thales, Rolls-Royce and L3, significantly facilitated the vital value engineering,design maturity, trade-offs, interfacing and integration work ahead of the manufacturing phase. This was instrumental in project success and helping to de-risk the program.

Solution

Twin island arrangement, with 50% of the propulsion and services supplied fwd, and 50% aft.

HV power and propulsion system arrangement:

• 2 x gas turbine (GT) & 4 x diesel generator (DG) electric alternators
• 4 x 11kV switchboard sections
• 4 x 20MW multi-phase Advanced Induction Motors (AIM)
• 4 X 20MW PWM multi-phase VDM25000 converters and 12 transformers
• 13 x ship’s service transformers
• 3 x harmonic filters
• 2 x shore supply power connections
• Power & Propulsion System control panels
• Electrical power control and management system
• System integration of GEPC Ship’s Electric Grid and with other alliance partners
• HV load bank for all setting to work and commissioning for the IFEP

Solution Benefits and Outcome :

• Quiet and resilient, shock-capable electrical drive trains
• Physical separation to suit build and survivability, connected only by electrical network (not rigid drive shafts).
• Enhanced availability, reliability and maintainability : Inherently robust power and propulsion plants.

Flexible, Frugal and Futureproof : 

• Lowest number of installed prime movers compared with mechanical or hybrid drive ship systems.
• Easily adaptable to changing mission profiles, and future integration of low/zero emission power sources.
• Through-life cost savings in fuel and maintenance, due to running optimum number of prime movers at optimum loadings to match power demand.
• Large amounts of installed electrical power can accommodate significant future increases in combat system loads such as high-energy weapons and radar, with minimal impact.

Challenge

Martin Linge is an oil and gas field located in a water depth of 100 to 120 m in the northern part of the North Sea, about 150 km off the coast of Norway. It was discovered in 1978 and is estimated to contain around 190 million barrels of oil and about 26 billion standard cubic meters of gas.

A limited carbon footprint was one of the main constraints requested by the Norwegian authorities for a platform to be allowed to operate there.

The Martin Linge platform is a new concept of electric offshore platform. It is sized to 55 MW, powered from shore via a 163-km subsea cable and remotely controlled with minimum manning offshore. Only electrical motors drive the rotating equipment such as the compressors and the pumps.

The gas is exported by pipeline to the on-shore terminal. Compared to traditional platforms using gas turbine for power generation, the electric platform reduces by 200,000 tons each year the CO2 emissions, equivalent to emissions of 100,000 cars.

Solution

GE Power Conversion was selected to supply four high-speed 2-pole induction electric motors, controlled by Variable Speed Drives, directly driving the compressors.

Gas Export #1 and #2

Step-Transformer: 9,000 kVA - 100 kV - 4 x 1400 V
Converter: DFE-VSI - 18 MVA - 6 kV
Motor: 2-pole induction - 6,898 kW - 4,350 V - 13,210 rpm

First, Second, Third Stage Re-compressor

Step-Transformer: 5,150 kVA - 11 kV - 4 x 925 V
Converter: DFE-VSI - 4 MVA - 3.4 kV
Motor: 2-pole induction - 1,732 kW - 2,600 V - 13,488 rpm

Fourth Stage Re-compressor

Step-Transformer: 9,000 kVA - 11 kV - 4 x 925 V
Converter: DFE-VSI - 9 MVA - 3.7 kV
Motor: 2-pole induction - 3,598 kW - 2,900 V - 13,735 rpm

Benefits

• The entire drive train is suspended by magnetic bearings, removing the need for the oil system and associated auxiliaries.
• This system architecture brings with it substantial reduction in weight and footprint, factors that helps reduce the size of the topside structure and its associated cost.
• A weight ratio of 4 tons of foundation per ton of installed base with a typical cost ratio of 10 to 20 k$ per ton of installed base is the usual expectation.
• Replacement of mechanical drivers by variable speed motors strongly improves the trains efficiency and the availability.

In Europe, industrial companies are obliged by environmental regulation to avoid or reduce their polluting emissions. Baker Hughes is committed to helping the oil and gas sector lower the carbon intensity of its value chain by electrifying operations, improving energy efficiency, and adopting low- or no-emission fuels. Our ICL integrated motor compressor and this project are excellent examples of that strategy in motion.

Challenge

Storengy’s aquifer storage site in Gournay-sur-Aronde, France, uses three compressors driven by gas turbines to store low-calorific-value (LCV) natural gas. In 2022, the facility will start changing to high-calorific-value (HCV) natural gas as used throughout the France network. During the transition period, Storengy will provide gradually less LCV gas, so the volume flow will decrease until 2026 when the compressors will return to normal flow with 100% HCV gas.

To ensure a smooth transition and achieve its target for emissions reduction, Storengy wanted to replace one of Gournay’s largest turbine-driven compressors with a more flexible alternative.

Solution

Storengy selected Baker Hughes’ ICL technology powered by GE Electrification’s 5.7 MW high-speed motor and MV7609 variable-frequency drive.

The centrifugal compressor is directly driven by the motor, with both arranged in a common pressurized casing. This unique architecture eliminates leakage and avoids, on average, 40,000 m3 of methane emissions per year.

The gearless drive and active-magnetic-bearing (AMB) shaft levitation combine to eliminate lubrication—saving 5,000 liters of oil every five years. The AMB also enables operation at very low speeds. Traditional compressors trains have an operating speed range 70–105%, whereas ICL’s is 35–105% thus allowing the unit to operate at lower speed without recycling, nor wasting energy to laminate when operating low flow or low compression ratio. The variable-frequency drive (VFD) enables speed variation with top efficiencies over the entire range, which reduces power consumption. Thanks to this increased flexibility, Storengy can operate with both HCV and LCV gas without restaging the ICL.

The whole package is 40–60% smaller than conventional solutions. So, it will fit in the storage station’s existing civil work and reuse existing piping process—further improving the project’s environmental footprint by avoiding the need for new concrete and piping.

The ICL system is also significantly quieter than conventional compressors.

Finally, ICL can handle hydrogen-natural gas mixtures, so it’s ready for the energy transition and compliance with future requirements.

Benefits

The Gournay storage facility’s new ICL integrated motor compressor has better driver efficiency across a wider speed range than the previous turbine-driven compressor. Beyond process efficiency and performance, this project enables a strong step towards Storengy’s decarbonization goals.

Even considering CO2 emissions from electricity production, and in part thanks to the low-carbon nature of the French electrical network, ICL will reduce Storengy’s CO2 emissions at this site by up to 90%.

In the rest of Europe, replacing a gas-turbine-driven compressor with an ICL reduces CO2 emission by 80% on average.