Tag Archive | "Siemens"

Siemens wins contract for 36MW windfarm in Germany


Siemens Energy has won a contract to supply turbines for a wind farm in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Under the contract, the company will supply 12 direct-drive wind turbines, 11 model SWT-3.0-113 and one model SWT-3.0-101 turbine, for the Süderlügum publicly-operated wind farm.

Located around 20km from the North Sea coast, the Süderlügum wind farm is scheduled to be installed for late 2014.

Siemens will also provide service and maintenance for a period of 20 years to ensure the long-term economical operation of the wind farm.

Each turbine has a capacity to generate 3MW.

This onshore order from the coastal region of Nordfriesland is the third project with Siemens to be implemented by Reinhard Christiansen.

“Süderlügum is an important project for the local population that will make a collective contribution to the energy turnaround.”

Reinhard Christiansen said: “Süderlügum is an important project for the local population that will make a collective contribution to the energy turnaround. As with our other two wind farms, Süderlügum will also supply clean electricity that is funded entirely by the public.”

Construction of the wind farm also represents a significant infrastructure project for the Nordfriesland region.

Siemens said that its Reactive Power at No Wind technology will help Suderlugum take advantage of renewable energy sources during calm weather.

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Siemens to provide equipment for Jaworzno III power plant in Poland


Siemens has been awarded a contract by SPV-Rafako to supply a turbine island for the Jaworzno III steam power plant in Poland.

Under the €208m contract, Siemens will engineer and deliver the turbine island comprising a model SST5-6000 steam turbine, a model SGen-3000W generator, a SCon-7000 condenser, the condensate and feedwater system and the high-voltage components.

Siemens will also provide technical consulting for the installation and commissioning of the supplied components and systems.

In a consortium with Mostostal Warszawa, SPV-Rafako, which is a 100% affiliate of Rafako, will install the plant for Tauron Polska Energia.

Siemens Energy Sector Energy Solutions CEO Rainer Hauenschild said, “This order for the supply of the turbine island for the Jaworzno lll power plant marks a significant milestone for Siemens in Poland.”

“The Jaworzno lll coal-fired power plant is expected to be one of the most efficient steam power plants in Europe.”

The SST5-6000 steam turbine will allow the plant to provide an installed electrical capacity of 910MW while the maximum net capacity is specified as 843.5MW, with a net efficiency of approximately 45.9%.

Rafako member of the management board Krzysztof Burek said, “For us, cooperation with Siemens for Jaworzno 910MW project is one of the most important factors for a successful execution of the project. We are looking forward to our smooth and efficient collaboration.”

With ultra-supercritical steam parameters, the Jaworzno lll coal-fired power plant is expected to be one of the most efficient steam power plants in Europe.

Slated to be commissioned in April 2019, the new plant will result in reduction of CO2 emissions by around 25% and will replace older units currently installed by Tauron.

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Mitsubishi and Siemens consider joint bid for parts of Alstom


TOKYO (AP) — The possible bid by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for turbine businesses of French engineering firmAlstom is part of Japan’s effort to carve out a share of the lucrative global energy infrastructure business.

Mitsubishi and German rival Siemens AG said Wednesday they are considering a joint bid for parts of Alstom and will decide by Monday whether to pitch it to Alstom’s board.

Mitsubishi Heavy is Japan’s largest heavy machinery maker with $32 billion in annual revenue. It produces ships, engines, nuclear power plants and arms for Japan’s defense ministry.

Reports indicate Siemens and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have separate plans for the assets they’d acquire under the joint bid.

The financial newspaper Nikkei reported Thursday that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Hitachi, which merged their thermal power generation systems businesses in February, would set up a new joint unit to incorporate the Alstom acquisition. Mitsubishi would own 65 percent and Hitachi 35 percent, the same ratio both hold in their combined business, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd.

Mitsubishi CEO Shunishi Miyanaga said his firm can “substantially contribute to a partnership solution for Alstom which will create value for all parties involved, including the country of France.”

The report put the value of the potential acquisitions by Siemens and the Japanese companies at 1 trillion yen ($9.8 billion).

It said Mitsubishi would purchase Alstom’s steam turbine business while Siemens would buy its gas turbines assets. However, Mitsubishi issued a statement saying that details of the acquisition were still under discussion.

It said Mitsubishi would purchase Alstom’s steam turbine business while Siemens would buy its gas turbines assets.

Alstom has favored a $17 billion bid from U.S. company General Electric, but the French government has been resistant to the deal and sought rival offers.

Alstom’s board is to make a decision by June 23.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, founded in 1884, employs more than 80,500 people. It and Hitachi have led Japan’s effort to gain an edge in the energy systems industry dominated by GE and Siemens. They’ve found an enthusiastic ally in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has circled the globe drumming up business for Japanese corporations.

Under Abe, many Japanese companies have profited massively from policies aimed at stimulating growth through heavy public spending and monetary easing that have helped weaken the yen, boosting the value of their overseas earnings in Japanese currency terms.

Cash holdings of Japanese corporations are equivalent to nearly 45 percent of their market capitalization, compared with less than 20 percent in the U.S. and about 25 percent in Germany.

But with the population in Japan aging and declining, companies have mostly opted to sit on their massive cash piles.

Domestic corporate investment has shown signs of recovery, but so far has lagged expectations, failing to provide the boost to real wages needed to ensure a sustained recovery from two decades of economic malaise.

Overseas foreign direct investment jumped 10 percent last year, to $135 billion, most of it flowing to Southeast Asia and the U.S., and most of it in non-manufacturing industries, according to Finance Ministry data.

There have been a few big overseas acquistions such as SoftBank Corp.’s purchase of a majority stake in Sprint, the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, in July 2013 for $21.6 billion and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s purchase of Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya Public Co. Ltd. for $5.7 billion.

Overall, though, overseas acquisitions by Japanese companies fell 58.8 percent in 2013 from the year before, to $47.7 billion, according to research firm Dealogic.

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Siemens innovations in control room technology announced at POWER-GEN Europe


Siemens has made a leap forward in its SPPA-T3000 Instrumentation and Control room technology as announced at POWER-GEN Europe in Cologne, Germany on Tuesday.

Hans-Christian Ostertag, Siemens Energy’s Head of Market Requirements delivered a presentation on the advance in control room technology at the event, which he explained was primarily motivated by the question, “How can a control system boost operator efficiency?”“Information handling and decision making to prevent maloperation and to enable fast and sound troubleshooting are the key to further increase availability and profitability of power generation. It is the core responsibility of the operator in the control room to ensure availability and profitability of a power plant,” Ostertag said.

He explained to the audience three innovations that backbone the new SPPA-T3000 control system, including a new graphical user interface, new intelligent alarm handling and a new concept for central control rooms.

The newly designed user interface offers enhanced, optimized operating efficiency. So-called “trip stop” buttons provide the user with distinct instructions on how to react to faults that occur in the power plant. A fresh harmonization concept enables control of remote power plants from one single, central control room.

The key consideration for the layout and design of the new SPPA-T3000 user interface was to ensure that the operator can intuitively react reliably and correctly in any situation. Vital criteria for this included prioritization, individualization and ergonomics.

Meanwhile innovative intelligent alarm handling in the guise of two “trip stop” buttons were also developed as a new alarm class for SPPA-T3000. These buttons are integrated in the alarm line for the new user interface and enable the operator to react quickly, appropriately and reliably in critical situations. The “trip warning” button is used to evaluate trip-relevant scenarios and generate warning messages to which the operator must give special attention to avoid unwanted shut-downs.

The “trip stop” button can also be used in situations in which a sudden fault re-quires an immediate reaction. This button provides brief, pre-defined instructions on actions to take to avoid unwanted shutdowns, along with an associated user window that the operator can use to help bring the critical situation quickly under control.

Meanwhile new concept in fleet control allows the operator master various plants from one central control room.

The need for central control rooms has arisen as a result of demographic and economic developments. Central control rooms must be capable of operating an entire fleet comprising various power plant installations with dissimilar instrumentation and control systems as if the control room were on hand at each power plant site. Siemens deploys its SPPA-T3000 control system for this purpose in a multiple unit configuration, operators in the central control room have a secure handle on the entire fleet at all times, as if they were actually at site, thanks to the system’s uniform operating and signalling philosophy.

“In the advanced development of SPPA-T3000 besides our own innovations the experience and practical needs of customers were integrated”, stresses Dieter Fluck, head of Product Management in the Siemens Energy Instrumentation, Controls & Electrical business unit. “Our central control room concept contributes to a substantial reduction in operating costs and, thus, to more competitiveness of our customers.”

“All of these innovations are focused on the operator. His efficiency is the key to success,” concluded Ostertag.

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Siemens Inks $2.1 Billion Deal for 600-MW Dutch Offshore Wind Project


MUNICH and LONDON — Siemens AG won a 1.5 billion-euro ($2.1 billion) contract for a Dutch offshore wind park that will also give Europe’s largest engineering company its biggest-ever energy service contract.

The order for the Gemini wind park, 85 kilometers (53 miles) offshore from Groningen, Netherlands, comprises 150 wind turbines with a capacity of four megawatts apiece, the Munich-based company said today in an e-mailed statement.

“We have considerably improved our service approach for this wind park,” Markus Tacke, the head of the wind-power division at Siemens, said in a telephone interview. The provision of equipment accounts for about half of the contract’s value, he said.

Siemens has tempered its willingness to bid for big-ticket work since Joe Kaeser became chief executive officer in August. Delays to projects connecting offshore wind farms to the grid have led to charges topping 1.1 billion euros since 2011, prompting Kaeser to promise investors that the company would be more circumspect in future contract tenders.

Lenient Conditions

The company signed a power transmission contract last month with TenneT Holding BV under more lenient conditions, intended to avoid a repeat of such charges, which have also burdened earnings at Zurich-based competitor ABB Ltd.

Siemens is also building a 160 million-pound ($268 million) wind turbine factory in northern England to improve its ability to serve the North Sea offshore wind market. Britain’s 3,689 megawatts of installed offshore wind capacity represent more than half of the 6,930-megawatts global total, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. A thousand megawatts is almost as much as a nuclear reactor produces.

Tacke expects Siemens wind power operations as a whole — including onshore turbines — to increase revenue by 5 percent to 6 percent annually in the next two to three years. Siemens has set the division, with sales of 5.2 billion euros last year, a profit margin target of 5 percent to 8 percent of revenue. That compares with a 6 percent margin last year, when charges for faulty onshore turbines held back profitability.

Still, offshore wind projects have been canceled as developers better understand the costs of the projects. Utilities have negated as much as 5,760 megawatts of planned capacity since Nov. 26, when RWE AG dropped its 1,200-megawatt Atlantic Array.

German Costs

German offshore wind costs may fall as much as 39 percent by 2023, the Stiftung Offshore-Windenergie lobby group estimated in August. The cost at that time was 0.13 euros to 0.14 euros per kilowatt-hour.

The service element of the Siemens deal will last 15 years and includes a dedicated ship and helicopter.

“Service is an important element of the offshore wind industry’s commitment to bring costs below 0.10 euros per kilowatt-hour by 2020,” Tacke said.

The Gemini wind park is due to start operations in early 2017.

“Overall, it will almost triple the Dutch wind energy output that is currently there,” Gemini Chief Executive Officer Matthias Haag told reporters in Amsterdam today.

Stake Share

Investment in the Dutch offshore wind farm, in which Siemens’s financing arm holds a 20 percent stake, will total almost 3 billion euros. Canada’s Northland Power Inc. owns 60 percent of the group, with Dutch offshore engineering specialist Van Oord NV holding 10 percent and Dutch public authorities the remaining shares.

About 70 percent of the project’s funds were provided in the form of secured construction and term-debt financing from 12 banks, three export-credit agencies and the European Investment Bank, according to a statement yesterday from Northland. The debt has been hedged to give an effective interest rate of about 4.75 percent, it said.

The lenders include ABN AMRO Bank NV, BNP Paribas SA, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., Deutsche Bank AG, Export Development Canada, Natixis, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten, Banco Santander SA and CaixaBank SA, Northland said.

The three export credit insurers are Denmark’s Eksport Kredit Fonden, Germany’s Euler Hermes SA and Ducroire-Delcredere SA from Belgium.

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Siemens wins contract for Carroll wind power plant in US


Siemens has received a contract from Carroll Area Wind Farm, a company of NJR Clean Energy Ventures, to supply wind turbines for the Carroll wind power plant.

The contract also includes a service and maintenance agreement.

To be located in western Iowa near the city of Carroll, the power plant will consist of nine 2.3MW geared wind turbines.

Siemens will supply its SWT-2.3-108 wind turbines for the plant. Installation of turbines will begin in October 2014 and commissioning is expected in early 2015.

The company claims that the SWT-2.3-108 turbine features enhanced reliability and productivity in low to moderate wind speeds. With 108m rotors, the turbines provide optimized power output for the site-specific wind conditions in western Iowa.

Siemens will manufacture the major wind turbine components at its production facilities in the US.

Siemens Energy’s Wind Power Onshore Americas business CEO Mark Albenze said the company looks forward to working with NJR Clean Energy Ventures on this project in Iowa.

“All of the blades will be manufactured at our nearby Fort Madison, Iowa, facility, and all nacelles and hubs for this project will be assembled at our factory in Hutchinson, Kansas,” Albenze said

“This order is further evidence that the federal production tax credit continues to boost new economic investment in the US and encourages development of proven renewable energy projects.”

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Siemens acquires Rolls-Royce power asset


Siemens has agreed a $1.3bn deal to buy Rolls-Royce’ energy aero-derivative gas turbine and compressor business.

The Bavaria-based company is looking to strengthen its position in the power generation and oil and gas industries, and close a profitability gap with rivals GE and ABB.

Rolls-Royce’s Energy gas turbine and compressor business has around 2,400 employees. In 2013, it was reported within the results of the Energy business where it contributed £871m of revenue and £72m of underlying profit.

The transaction excludes certain smaller power generation sector assets. On completion of the transaction, Rolls-Royce’s shareholding in the Rolls Wood Group (RWG) joint venture, that provides maintenance, repair and overhaul services, will be transferred to Siemens.

The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of Rolls-Royce and Siemens, and is expected to complete before the end of December 2014, subject to closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

In terms of results, Siemens (NYSE: SI) this week reported quarterly earnings that missed analyst estimates on more charges at Siemens’s power transmission unit.

As part of the Rolls-Royce deal, Siemens will pay the London-based company an additional $340m over 25 years to get exclusive access to aero-turbine technology in the 4- to 85 MW power output range. The turbines with an output below 66 MW fill a gap in Siemens’s product portfolio.

As part of an overall restructuring, chief executive Joe Kaeser has added Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) executive Lisa Davis to his team. She will join Siemens’s management board on in August with responsibility for power operations. Michael Suess will step down from a similar role “for personal reasons and by mutual consent” and with immediate effect.

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