Ramp Engine – Trey Lewellen

Keywords List

ramp

Ramp

is

of

and

rate

the

gas

The

Gas

Summary

• Power plant flexibility is recognized as a vital tool to manage variability in electric loads and provide grid support services.

• One measure of this flexibility is ramp rate – the rate at which a power plant can increase or decrease output.

• Wärtsilä engines can ramp at over 250 MW/minute, much faster than gas turbines, providing ultra-responsive power that is needed to integrate renewable energy.

• Flexible generating units help provide stability to the electric grid by ramping output up or down as demand and system loads fluctuate.

• Because solar and wind generation can change within minutes, electric grid operators rely on power plants that can provide additional load (or curtail load) on the same timescale as variations in renewable output.