Introduction

The zero emission power plant (ZEPP) is an innovative concept for oxyfuel combustion of 170 MWth (50MWe) power plant in Drachten/Akkrum. It is expected a capture rate of 250,000 ton CO2 annualy, with transport and storage into gas fields for EGR, resulting in a yield of natural gas of about 40 million cubic metres.

Objectives and target audience

A reduction of approximately 1 Megaton CO2-emission can be achieved over a period of four years. Furthermore, the ZEPP plant will not emit any NOx, SO2 or ‘fine dust’, due to the special combustion process using pure oxygen.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The ZEPP in Drachten is initiated by the Dutch company SEQ Nederland B.V. Financial support is given by ONS energy, an electricity distribution company, local governments and by Energy Valley, a public private foundation with local, national and European members, which stimulates the economy of the North of the Netherlands through the financing of energy activities.
The zero emission power plant (ZEPP) project involves the collaboration of SEQ Nederland BV, ENECO Milieu BV, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and the Stichting Energy Valley initiative and will cost €60 million of which €10 million is subsidy from Ministry of Finance.

Process

Applying ESTEEM
The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has applied and tested the ESTEEM tool in the ZEPP project. ECN executed the six steps of the tool together with the project manager, Wouter van de Waal during 2007.

Step 1:  Project past & present
Based on two interviews with Mr Van de Waal, ECN wrote the narrative of the project. A story-like text on the past and current situation of the ZEPP starting with the first ideas of Van de Waal to store CO2  under ground in 1999 until the concrete plans of the ZEPP as they are in 2007. Based on the narrative, the table with defining moments of the project  was compiled: a chronological overview of moments in the past that have influenced the project in a major way, for example the introduction of project partners, the concession to use the gas field, financial support decisions, etc. ECN also analysed the context of the project in the barriers and opportunities tables in which potential opportunities and barriers of the project are shortly described. Together with Van de Waal ECN finally present situation: stakeholder map ZEPP compiled an overview of all the stakeholders and their past, current and possible future role in the actors table.

Step 2:  Vision building
In the second step of the ESTEEM process ECN investigated the future visions for the project in 2020 of project manager Van de Waal and seven stakeholders. These stakeholders were selected using the criteria in the ESTEEM manual and included stakeholders such as local and national government (municipality, province, ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Environmental affairs), technology developers (Siemens), NGOs (Friesche Milieufederatie) and an interest group for local industries. Based on face-to-face interviews ECN wrote the visions in the format of a future newspaper article (20     September 2020) with a title summarising the vision. Also a network map was designed for each vision, visualising the relations between stakeholders in the future.

Step 3:  Vision confrontation
In the third step ECN analysed and compared the visions drafted in the previous step and derived potential comparison. In total thirteen identified (for example whether or not to have a cooling tower, role of local versus national government, etc) as well as seven opportunities (for example joined heat supply with a local biomass plant and making use of locally available services and industries) which had not been mentioned by the project manager before.

Step 4:  Identifying solutions
For each controversy and opportunity identified in the previous step Mr Van de Waal and ECN discussed one or more strategies to overcome the controversies and make use of the opportunities.
These strategies were divided into four categories: adjustments of the installation design or (change of) location, gaining extra knowledge through articulating new research questions, financial incentives and others. In total Mr Van de Waal and ECN identified 29 new strategies for the project.

Step 5:  Stakeholder workshop
ECN grouped the controversies and opportunities identified in step 3 of the ESTEEM process in five themes which were discussed at a stakeholder workshop. ECN organised this workshop in November 2007. The location was provided by one of the neighbouring companies at the industrial area where the ZEPP is planned. The goal of this workshop was twofold:
1.    Identifying and debating strategies, that are desirable from a societal point of view, in interaction with SEQ and relevant stakeholders.
2.    Testing the fifth step of ESTEEM to gain experience and refine it.

Step 6:  Planning for action
In the last step of ESTEEM, ECN has categorized all strategies formulated in the stakeholder workshop into activities and actions to be taken on the short time and do not require extensive cooperation activities, activities that do require extensive collaboration with third parties and actions focusing on the long time and/or monitoring.
These actions are further elaborated into sub-actions and concrete recommendations for the project manager by ECN in three different plans for action:

• A short term action plan, including for example adaptations to plant design proposed by stakeholders or specific information supply to local residents.
• Collaboration plan, including for example collaboration with the city council for improving the green image of Drachten by advertising the ZEPP and also advertising residual heat to potential users.
• Long term action plan, including for example strategies for taking part in national and international debate on the relation between Carbon Capture & Storage technologies and renewable energy.

In these plans the project manager was provided with details about what steps the project
manager needs to take from a societal perspective with the aim of increasing societal acceptance of the ZEPP in Drachten.

Results

At full capacity the plant can generate sufficient climate neutral power for approximately 150,000 households, which corresponds to about 50% of all Frisian households. A local (climate neutral) heat grid with a capacity of around 15 MW will also form part of the project.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges?