Solar and Battery Sizing for Continuous Operation of Electrified Ethylene Plants

The chemical industry is the third largest industry subsector for direct carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. In efforts to decarbonize and combat the damaging effects of climate change, many industrial plants are looking at electrifying traditionally fossil-fuel powered processes. However, this is more challenging than the electrification of residential and commercial buildings: many chemical processes require high levels of heat, which for very high-heat processes, is difficult for electrical systems to achieve; many of these plants run close to full-capacity throughout the year, meaning even a short grid outage can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost profits. In this paper, we analyze a moderately sized electrified ethylene plant and determine if a battery system can help plant owners offset lost revenue from grid failures. We simulate solar generation profiles under summer and winter seasons, with and without power outages, and under the assumption that the plant is purchasing electricity in the real-time market or is under a fixed-rate contract. The results indicate that solar and batteries may be useful for sustaining operation during outages, but may be too expensive for day-to-day operations.