Energy & Sustainability Business Topics

It is now apparent that the increase in drought conditions, floods, storms, and other natural disasters in recent years is the result of global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agrees, stating “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.”¹ To avert having an even more dire impact on the global environment, a movement supporting a net-zero society—in which net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are reduced to zero—has been gaining traction. Recognizing this worldwide trend toward decarbonization, Yokogawa’s oil-and-gas customers are transforming into integrated energy companies that deal also in renewable energy. Specifically, these customers are actively investing not only in environmentally-friendly facilities for waste management, recycling, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), but are also seeking to improve the operational efficiency and environmental performance of their existing assets and engage in environmentally production of ammonia and other substances. 

As the world’s population and emerging economies continue to grow, a significant surge in global energy demand is expected. To attain a net-zero society under these circumstances, renewables must account for a greater share of the global energy mix. And while maintaining a stable and efficient energy supply, it will be increasingly necessary for supply chains to incorporate complex energy storage facilities such as battery arrays and hydrogen tanks.

 

Business Overview

Yokogawa's energy & sustainability business segment strives to protect the environment by supporting the effective use of energy and contributing toward the realization of a sustainable society. The business segment vision for 2030 is as follows: “With the clean energy generated by our technology, we contribute to well-being and quality of life for all.” With this vision in mind, Yokogawa capitalizes on its expertise and strong customer relationships in the oil & gas, petrochemical, renewable energy, power, energy management, and energy storage fields to support safe and optimal operations throughout the progressively diversified energy value chain from production and supply to use, disposal, and recycling.

In the oil & gas and petrochemical fields, Yokogawa has a large installed base of plant monitoring and control systems, and over the years has developed strong relationships with its customers in these industries. Through the conduct of numerous large-scale projects, Yokogawa has developed comprehensive integration capabilities as well as expertise in operational consulting that enable the company to deliver solutions for safe, optimal plant operations. Yokogawa has also kept up with the emerging trend of digital transformation (DX) and acquired considerable know-how in this field through the implementation of a number of DX projects. One example of such activities was a project for a customer in the Middle East that fully automated an upstream oil and natural gas production facility. The entire facility can operate in autopilot mode, eliminating all manual processes and making operations safer than ever.

In the power business, Yokogawa has decades of experience in delivering plant monitoring and control systems to customers worldwide. With regard to renewable energy, in 2022 Yokogawa acquired all shares of Dublix Technology ApS, a Danish provider of solutions that improve the efficiency of waste-to-energy (WTE) and biomass power plants. With the addition of Dublix's combustion control and boiler performance enhancement technologies to Yokogawa's lineup of monitoring, control, and maintenance systems, our company is well positioned to provide solutions that will improve the efficiency of WTE and biomass power plants. 

In the renewable energy field, where output can vary with shifts in weather conditions, power output must be accurately predicted and managed. Balancing power demand and supply is also critical. Responding to these requirements, Yokogawa provides products and solution not only for its customers’ power generation facilities, but also for their energy management systems (EMS) and battery energy storage systems (BESS), thereby helping to ensure a stable supply of power.

 

 

Solutions for Value Creation: 

Integrating Remote Geothermal Stations to Maximize Power-Generation Efficiency

Through the visualization of customers’ challenges, we help them optimize operations and create value by facilitating quick and effective decision-making.

Projects conducted by our energy & sustainability business include the Olkaria geothermal complex, run by Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC. Here we used IoT to integrate the management of power output and ensure high operational efficiency at four geothermal stations. Located far apart from each other in this complex, these power plants were previously managed separately, and the challenge was to find ways to effectively coordinate their performance. We therefore built and delivered a system that not only utilizes IoT to collect operational efficiency data from remote stations, but also automatically performs root-cause analysis when the power-generation efficiency deteriorates. This solution has allowed the customer to determine the cause of any problem and perform timely equipment maintenance, maximizing operational efficiency and ensuring a stable power supply to local residents.

 

Olkaria II Power Station

 

Energy Transition Initiatives

As hydrogen will play a key role in decarbonization, Yokogawa has set up a cross-sectional team with a broad industry perspective to determine what value the company can offer to the entire hydrogen supply chain, from production to transport. As the use of renewable energy becomes more widespread, power-generation and storage systems are likely to be installed in many offices and households. 

As more such systems are installed, conventional unidirectional energy supplies will increasingly give way to bidirectional systems. With the aim of globally rolling out distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) and microgrid control (MGC) systems that can manage and control large numbers of facilities and intricately interconnected power grids, in December of 2021 we acquired PXiSE Energy Solutions LLC, an American firm with technological expertise in this area.

Leveraging its strengths in the monitoring and control of power generation facilities, Yokogawa will foster the establishment of connections among ever-diversifying energy supply networks, with the overall goal of achieving carbon-neutrality by maximizing the use of renewable energy.

 

 

Toward a Net-Zero Society

Based on its “Three goals” for sustainability by the year 2050, Yokogawa’s energy & sustainability business is focused on addressing the challenge of a changing climate by achieving net-zero emissions, and toward that end will help to ensure the efficient use of energy and work to attain a sustainable society. To realize a net-zero society, we will act to fulfill our responsibility for the good of all people and society and the future of our planet.

 

Reference
1. IPCC Working Group 1. “Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis.” IPCC, 2021.
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/