Dunamenti Power Plant, a member of the integrated European energy company MET Group, has launched an electrode boiler power-to-heat project, which will utilise excess green energy to produce hot water for heating purposes.
As the share of weather-dependent renewable energy generation increases in the supply mix, temporary overproduction adds additional constraints to the electricity network, requiring grid operator interventions with conventional energy sources. The main role of Dunamenti’s new E-boiler is to provide the Hungarian grid operator MAVIR with a fully dispatchable and flexible 30 megawatts (MW) power consumer.
By using the “flexibility” function of the 30 MW boiler, up to 120 MW of additional weather-dependent green energy sources can be integrated safely into the grid, thus strengthening the sustainability and security of supply. As a result, the zero-carbon project actively contributes to Hungary’s clean energy transition.
“This power-to-heat application will help to balance the electricity grid by converting the excess electricity to heat, to be stored in a heat storage tank, allowing us to serve local heat demand. With this asset we can entirely displace natural gas from our on-site heat consumption, and also reduce the gas-linkage of district heating services in Százhalombatta,” explained Péter Horváth, CEO of Dunamenti Power Plant.
“Dunamenti Power Plant’s existing grid infrastructure coupled with nearby heat demand provides an ideal location for this project, despite the host site of the asset being a conventional power plant. The E-boiler project will run entirely independently from the existing gas-fired units. This is currently a first-of-a-kind configuration in Hungary,” added Pál Gerse, Director of Portfolio Management at MET Group’s Flexibility Assets Division.
The new electrode boiler will be provided by PARAT, Norway’s leading supplier of steam and heat solutions.
