KUCHING (Dec 2): One year ago, Petroleum Sarawak Bhd (Petros) announced plans to invest RM2 billion in a 500-megawatt (MW) combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant in Miri to enhance state-wide access to affordable, reliable and clean energy under the Sarawak Gas Roadmap (SGR).

On Sunday, the ground-breaking ceremony for the 500MW CCGT Miri plant officially took place, taking us one step closer to achieving the goals set forth in the SGR.

With Sarawak’s total energy generation capacity estimated to sit around 5,7000MW, the addition of the 500MW Miri plant is timely as it may aid Sarawak with its ambitions of exporting excess power to regional neighbours and supporting the growing energy needs within our developing industries.

The upcoming 500MW CCGT power plant project in Miri is owned and operated by Petros Power Sdn Bhd and supported by Sinohydro Corporation Ltd (Sinohydro) as the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contractor and Mitsubishi Power Pte Ltd (Mitsubishi Power) as the core equipment supplier.

In an exclusive interview with The Borneo Post, Akihiro Ondo managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of Mitsubishi Power, a power solutions brand of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, shared that they would be supplying their state-of-the-art M701F gas turbine and steam turbine for the project.

“The provided M701F gas turbine will be designed to co-fire fuel containing up to 30 per cent hydrogen, which would make the power plant the most advanced power generation facility in Sarawak to date,” he told The Borneo Post.

This project is Mitsubishi Power’s first large-scale gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) initiative in Sarawak, and Akihiro sees it as a significant step in leading capacity addition for power generation in Sarawak.

“As far as we understand, Sarawak has great potential to house industrial parks, data centres and or semiconductor factories.

“These will have growing electricity demand and in order for Sarawak to meet energy security, affordability, and sustainability, the optimisation of power generation capacity is quite important,” he said.

Assurance of quality and reliability

While commercial gas turbines with a capability to cofire 30 per cent hydrogen is still relatively new to the market, Akihiro believed the technology behind it is sound and that Mitsubishi Power’s continued verification in its validation facility is an assurance of the quality and reliability of their provided equipment.

According to Akihiro, the group’s Takasago Hydrogen Park, the world’s first integrated hydrogen validation facility, currently houses a commercial scale CCGT verification plant.

“There we have a capacity of 500MW which is same as the Miri project, and in that facility we conduct a long-term verification of the new technologies, more than 10,000 hours.

“Only after such a verification process do we introduce new technology to our customers,” he said.

He emphasised that these strict and practical validation guidelines are the core basis of their assurance of quality and reliability and also one of the reasons why they were selected by Petros as the core equipment supplier for the Miri plant.

He added that Mitsubishi Powers has also provided similar gas turbines that are capable of co-firing 30 per cent hydrogen to a plant located within the Advanced Clean Energy Storage (ACES) Delta Hub in Utah, US which is expected to begin commercialisation early next year.

Further demonstrating reliability and quality of their gas turbines.

Besides just being the core equipment provider, Akihiro shared that Mitsubishi Power has also secured a Long-Term Service Agreement (LTSA) with Petros to ensure continued stable operational performance of the power plant following its commercialisation.

Hydrogen power the next step?

While gas power is sometimes hailed as blue energy due its less emissions-intensive nature compared to traditional coal generation, it arguably still produces a significant amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

To mitigate this, current gas-powered plants often include both gas and steam turbines to make the most out of the heat produced during the process. This approach can enhance efficiency by up to 50 per cent.

Additionally, newer gas turbines like the M701F are now engineered to be able to generate electricity from a blend of gas and hydrogen which can further reduce emissions while retaining efficiency.

Right now, most commercially available gas turbines are able to have a 30 per cent hydrogen co-firing rate, but Akihiro shares that depending upon the progress of technological verification, they are hoping to increase co-firing ratio by 50 per cent and then move to commercialising 100 per cent hydrogen-firing by the 2040s.

He stressed that this long-term goal is in line with Mitsubishi Power’s vision of making the hydrogen revolution a reality as hydrogen continues to be one of the most feasible solutions to meet the growing demand for gradual decarbonization of our power generation systems.

He explained that currently in their Takasago Hydrogen Park, they have already installed several different types of hydrogen production systems and are also partnered with Chevron in the ACES Delta project which is set to become the world’s largest green hydrogen producing facility.

With expertise in hydrogen generation, Akihiro shared that he hopes that Mitsubishi Power will be able to collaborate with stakeholders like Petros and Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB) on future potential related projects or energy transition programmes.

He added that he believes Sarawak has an ideal location and conditions to become a green hydrogen hub in the region.

“With a large base load of renewable hydropower energy, hydrogen will be able to be produced in a stable manner which is quite an important strength and with Sarawak located in the centre of Asia-Pacific, there is so much potential to export to markets like japan or Korea.

“Should Sarawak continue to pursue this, it is our view that it would be one of the biggest hydrogen hubs in the region.”