Engineering Energy Transitions

Energy transition is mostly driven by policy decisions and technology but can only be delivered at pace by efficiently developing and sharing relevant engineering expertise and good practice. Bringing engineers together to address practical tasks is a role performed for decades by industry’s Engineering Equipment and Materials Users Association (EEMUA), the not-for-profit, international membership body for owners and operators of fixed industrial assets. Industry turns to this body to deal with practical engineering challenges including those brought by energy transitions.

Harnessing wind and sun

Fossil fuels still play an important role where living standards and demand for energy are rising; while renewables have become a significant and growing part of the energy mix¹. Tomorrow’s global energy system will be characterised by a more diverse energy mix, greater reliance on storage to meet intermittency challenges, and network structures evolving to support local generation and consumption.

Worldwide, power generation from solar grew more than 20% in 2019 to rank third among renewables – after hydropower and onshore wind². Onshore and offshore wind capacity are expected to grow². In harsh, offshore environments, sound engineering design and confidence in through-life robustness for large turbines are essential. EEMUA’s 194 good practice guidance is applied to materials selection and corrosion control for subsea energy equipment, with EEMUA 158 for practical guidance on offshore construction specification – from materials selection and handling, to welding procedures, personnel, and construction processes. EEMUA 197 guidance is used when fabricating non-primary offshore steelwork and EEMUA 176 guidance on structural castings.

These shifts in energy mix demand changes to network infrastructure that enable electricity grids to accommodate geographically dispersed generation sources. To maintain balance and firm supply, this distributed generation and grid infrastructure must be carefully monitored and controlled – here, EEMUA 191 guidance on alarm systems management is used by industry.

Organic Growth

Meanwhile, developing societies produce more organic waste with renewable energy potential as biogas that may grow 40% in two decades³. In such settings engineers’ primary source of practical guidance are: EEMUA 230 for rotating mechanical equipment; EEMUA 159 for inspection, maintenance and repair of above-ground flat bottomed storage tanks; EEMUA 183 for best practice in preventing bottom leakage from steel storage tanks; EEMUA 231 for mechanical integrity of plant containing hazardous substances; and EEMUA 186 for practitioners on potentially explosive atmospheres.

This article is extracted from an EEMUA whitepaper – read more here (https://bit.ly/2TSyZEP) after free registration.

1. See, for example, BP (2020), Energy Outlook – Key Messages https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/energy-outlook/introduction/executive-summary.html
2. Renewable UK, Powering the Future, Future Energy Supply – Offshore Wind http://vision.renewableuk.com/#future-energy-supply
3. International Energy Agency (March 2020), Outlook for biogas and biomethane https://www.iea.org/reports/outlook-for-biogas-and-biomethane-prospects-for-organic-growth

The table includes links directly to specialist practical guidance for engineers, with many more guidance publications, training, forums, seminars, webinars, workshops and other resources ‘by industry, for industry’ to support the engineering community available at www.eemua.org – or ask membership@eemua.org to make these resources work best for you and your colleagues.