According to the market situation most American and European gas engine producers are represented on the Russian market. There are no Russian manufacturers of gas engines at the moment. Usually gas gensets are installed to reduce cost of electricity for small industrial sites. Another application of gas engines is usage of gas engines as a drive for compressors installed in gas and oil fields.
When a customer wants to reduce the cost of electricity for a small industrial site, the tariffs for gas and electricity should be compared. There can be lack of power in the local grid and that’s why it is impossible to get needed power from the grid.
If the tariff offered by a local electrical grid is high enough and there is the local gas source, the owner or the managing team should think whether it is reasonable to buy gas genset. One should compare electricity price with the price of natural gas to make a correct solution.
It is well known that each industrial site in Russia requires thermal power for heating in cold season. Of course each industrial site has a source of natural or associated gas for operation. While planning the construction of a new site the calculation of needed power should be made in advance.
Otherwise it will be necessary to get the state approval of the project and get new increased gas limits from the gas supply company. Both time and money are needed for the process. Usually the situation is much different for remote sites such as gas and oil production regions because they have gas in excess. The problem in this case is usually the following: there is only associated oil gas at disposal.
Associated oil gas needs to be purified and dried before coming to gas turbine or gas piston genset. So it is necessary to install good gas treatment system with coalescent filters before gas engines. If gas contains much water and hydrocarbon condensate normal operation will be impossible. Derating 25-30% of nominal power will take place.
If associated gas has too low methane number and contains too much water/hydrocarbon condensate it will be necessary to use amine gas drying unit instead of cheaper coalescent filters.
Most customers and project design companies prefer to use only “plug and play” genset packages. Genset packages are usually installed in open air and can be easily connected with a gas pipeline and electrical line of a site.
There are a few Russian companies which are experienced enough for producing container packages in ambient temperature range -60…+40 °C. These companies can make containerized gas piston gensets, compressor packages and electrical distribution systems using main imported components.
All gensets for Russian market should have prelube oil pumps 24V, start from zero / black start mode without external power supply 400 V, i.e. they should be able to operate as emergency diesel generators. Sometimes it is necessary to install pneumatic starters for gas engines. Such pneumatic starter allows to start an engine with pressure from gas pipeline. This application is usually used in oil and gas fields when low winter temperature makes battery starters 24V inefficient.
In most cases gas genset vendors consult their customers, analyze electrical single line diagrams and determine operational mode, i.e. make some project designing. It is always necessary to clarify special requirements from the customer before placing an order at the factory.
Compressorturbo helps in selection of gas gensets for operation both in parallel with the grid and isolated mode. The selection depends on different factors such as maximum electrical load, needed heat power etc.