BIOELECTRICA DE GARRAY PLANT
Soria, Spain
This project is the best example of our capability: conceived and designed using the best technologies on the market after visiting numerous power plants all over Europe and in which all the affiliates of the ENSO Group took part. Its importance is reflected in the fact that it was the first biomass plant to be incorporated by Red Eléctrica Española (Spain's power grid) in the Regulation Band (plants providing ancillary power services to the grid) and it is considered one of the critical or strategic power plants of the system because of its manageability.
The Bioléctrica de Garray plant has an automated biomass silo, Inconel coating on various parts that enable it to be as a test rig for any fuel type, and its fuel type is also flexible, being able to include olive-oil solid waste in the mix. It has advanced systems of communication and control that facilitate O&M. It is the only power plant in Spain that has a natural gas engine attached whose exhaust gas can dry the biomass fed into the boiler. Its OFA (Over Furnace Air) has been redesigned to optimise combustion through variable air flows.
The plant has high levels of availability and performance thanks to the close management of its O&M, which innovates daily in the use of thermographic cameras to control fuel, for example, in the control and exhaustive monitoring of the biomass feed and its storage. The boiler has an air-cooled vibrating grid.
With approximately 100,000 MWh of annual output, it prevents the emission of around 24,100 t CO2 (241 gr CO2/kWh in the Spanish electricity mix in 2019) and provides the equivalent of an electrical consumption for 27,000 homes. In addition, it attracts investment (a greenhouse located on its neighbouring land to capitalise on the renewable thermal energy) and promotes innovative projects in the unpopulated area of Soria (offsetting the de-population), including:
-
Future production plant for fertilisers based on biomass ash.
-
Future CCU (Capture, Cleaning and Use of CO2), in which, together with its partner, Carburos Metálicos, part of the gases from the plant will be cleaned and with the CO2 captured, it will generate a renewable CO2 source for use in industry or food. This innovative, pioneering circular-economy project has received European aid as part of the LIFE programme (LIFE CO2 INT BIO) and was a finalist in the 2019 CEX Awards given by the National Grid of Centres of Excellence.
