Georgia Power and Mitsubishi Power have officially announced a successful second trial blending of hydrogen with natural gas fuels at both partial and full load on an M501GAC natural gas turbine at Georgia Power’s Plant McDonough-Atkinson in Smyrna, Georgia.
According to certain reports, the demonstration in question marks an industry-first in the context of validating 50%* hydrogen fuel blending on an advanced class gas turbine, all while emerging as the largest test of this kind throughout the world till date.
As for the results, 50% blend provided an approximately 22% reduction in CO2 emissions, as compared to 100% natural gas. More on that would reveal how several tests were conducted prior to the 50% blend demonstration, including multiple blend percentages that ranged from 5% to 50%, with testing being conducted across several weeks in May and June.
To understand the significance of such a development, we must take into account how natural gas alone is responsible for supplying around 40 percent of Georgia Power’s annual energy generation.
In response, the Plant McDonough-Atkinson facility, located less than ten miles from downtown Atlanta, was fully converted to natural gas in 2012 and expanded to power up to 1.7 million homes. It currently operates with six advanced, large-capacity M501G and M501GAC series gas turbines that deliver high performance and high efficiency, as well as three steam turbines running in three blocks of 2-on-1 combined-cycle configuration and two gas/oil fueled combustion turbines.
This also builds upon the facility’s 80-year long track record of serving electric customers throughout the region.
“Natural gas serves a critical role in our generation mix, providing flexibility, baseload power and quick response to customer demand, and will continue to be an important fuel as we plan to meet the energy needs of a growing Georgia through a diverse portfolio of generation resources,” said Rick Anderson, senior vice president and senior production officer for Georgia Power. “At Georgia Power, innovative testing such as this is just one way we help ensure we can deliver reliable and affordable energy for customers for decades into the future, and reduce our overall emissions.”
Talk about the given test on a slightly deeper level, it saw Mitsubishi Power completing the hydrogen blending on one M501GAC gas turbine unit, and it did so with an approximate one-on-one output of 283 MW. The company also provided full turnkey service for this project including engineering, planning, hydrogen blending hardware, controls, commissioning, and risk management.
Mitsubishi Power further recruited the help of Certarus to source and manage the hydrogen supply and logistics.
All in all, the development in question delivers a rather interesting follow-up to the first 20% by volume hydrogen blending test conducted at Plant McDonough-Atkinson completed in 2022.
Making this development even more critical would be Georgia Power’s own stature. You see, the company has reduced its carbon emissions by more than 60% since 2007. As of today, it is engaged in the development of three new Mitsubishi Power simple cycle combustion turbine resources, well-equipped to utilize hydrogen, at Plant Yates in Coweta County as approved by the Georgia PSC in the 2023 Integrated Resource Plan Update (IRP).
Apart from that, Georgia Power is also investing in existing power plants to better serve Georgia. Markedly enough, the company has proposed upgrades to ten natural gas turbines, both combined cycle and simple cycle, at Plant McIntosh in the 2025 IRP. These enhancements, on their part, are expected to add extra 268-megawatts of capacity.
In fact, when you combine this with new renewable generation resources such as solar, these initiatives really go the distance to showcase Georgia Power’s industry-leading effort towards reducing carbon emissions, while simultaneously conceiving a resilient and reliable energy future and meeting the increasing energy needs of the state.
“It has been a privilege to partner with Georgia Power on this landmark project,” said Mark Bissonnette, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Power Generation at Mitsubishi Power Americas. “Building on the success of our earlier tests, we have achieved a 50% hydrogen blend in an advanced-class gas turbine, showcasing the capabilities of our state-of-the-art technology.”
