Estimate the energy stored in CAES in McIntosh Alabama What

Estimate the energy stored in CAES in McIntosh Alabama. What is the cycle efficiency of that system? (Answer should include two calculations)

Solution

Total energy stored is 110MW (84%).

The 2nd commercial CAES plant, in operation since 1991. Like the Huntorf plant, the McIntosh Unit 1 facility stores compressed air in a solution-mined salt cavern. The cavern is 220 ft in diameter and 1,000 ft tall, for a total volume of 10 million cubic feet. At full charge, the cavern is pressurized to 1,100 psi, and it is discharged down to 650 psi. During discharge, 340 pounds of air flow out of the cavern each second. The cavern can discharge for 26 hours. The plant also utilizes nuclear-sourced night-time power for compression and then produces peak power during the day by releasing the compressed air into a 110-MW gas-fired combustion turbine built by Dresser Rand. The turbine unit also makes use of an air-to-air heat exchanger to preheat air from the cavern with waste heat from the turbine. The waste heat recovery system reduces fuel usage by roughly 25%.

Compared to conventional combustion turbines, the CAES-fed system can start up in 15 minutes rather than 30 minutes, uses only 30% to 40% of the natural gas, and operates efficiently down to low loads (about 25% of full load). The key function of the facility is for peak shaving.

The rated power is 110 MW, with a capacity of 26 hours at full-load this delivers 2.86 GWh of storage.