MW-Scale Hydrogen Demonstrations: Balancing the Grid with Flexibility

On Wednesday morning at POWERGEN 2025, Klaus Payrhuber, Strategic Product Development, and Michael Collins, Business Development Manager at INNIO Jenbacher, hosted MW-Scale Hydrogen Demonstrations. With grid-based difficulties arising from wind and solar power generation—and battery energy storage systems' (BESS) struggle with high-capacity, long-term storage—hydrogen may be the way forward.

Payrhuber said preliminary hydrogen-to-power projects are currently demonstrating the viability of hydrogen gas engines, with some installations in Germany, the Netherlands, and South Korea firing 100% hydrogen. He discussed how natural gas-fired plants are adaptable for future hydrogen conversion and detailed the technical modifications required to support this energy transition.

Background

Germany's energy challenge was the catalyst for this hydrogen-oriented presentation. Although it drives the renewable energy transition globally, the country struggles in colder months due to the lack of traditional generation sources. This is where INNIO Jenbacher’s assets come into play, supplementing renewable power with hydrogen-natural gas engines that offer decarbonized, reliable generation when renewables don’t fulfill grid requirements.

Payrhuber outlined a series of INNIO’s hydrogen-blending demonstration projects across the world, with blends ranging from 30 - 100% in many applications, including:

• Data centers
• Powering remote locations, such as islands
• Hubs and microgrids
• Grid balancing
• Flexible combined heat-and-power

Hydrogen Engine Benefits

According to Payrhuber, the hydrogen engines are well-adapted to meet growing data center power demand: “We have a really exciting project for a smaller data center in The Netherlands. It needs power in the range of 10 - 30 MW and, by 2030, will be carbon neutral. It installed six of our 1-MW J420 hydrogen engines over the diesel solutions, running in backup. These can run 100% hydrogen or natural gas. Due to lack of hydrogen availability via pipeline, the data center will install hydrogen storage to run the engines for 1 - 2 hours.”

Perhaps the most notable benefit is the engine’s ability to fire impure hydrogen, with Payrhuber noting that the model can burn blends containing methane from subsurface hydrogen storage caverns. Further, INNIO’s models actually emit less NOx than natural gas-based combustion systems—this is achieved by infusing more air into the system.

An Austrian project demonstrates a potentially game-changing innovation, “Our customer has installed a 2-MW electrolyzer unit near empty gas storage fields, which were converted to hydrogen storage,” said Payrhuber. “The system produces hydrogen in the summertime when the grid is at overcapacity with renewable power generation, pumping it underground for the winter. In the winter, the hydrogen is transported via pipeline to a combined-heat-and-power facility to deliver grid power when renewables aren’t online.”

He said that this small-scale demonstration shows how gas-fired power plants may be replaced by hydrogen in the future. Once renewables are sufficient to provide 24/7 power during summer months and hydrogen infrastructure is well-established, stored volumes can deliver combustion-based power at low-carbon intensity to balance the grid.

With the lack of hydrogen machinery available for commercial applications, specifically in power generation, INNIO Jenbacher sought out official approval for its breakthrough engines. “Hydrogen is used a lot in refineries and oil and gas—they know how to use it and have norms and standards,” said Payrhuber. “Hydrogen is not the typical fuel for power generation and has never been used commercially, so the norms and standards are missing. That’s why we have a certificate from TÜV SÜD in Germany, certifying all our engines can run safely on 100% hydrogen.”

Hydrogen in the United States

In the United States, many hydrogen projects are long-term initiatives due to the lack of generation and transportation infrastructure. So, to counter the slow adoption, INNIO Jenbacher installed its hydrogen-ready engines in a natural gas configuration, intending to switch to hydrogen once the fuel is readily available.

“You’ll have the ability to run natural gas or 100% hydrogen,” said Collins. “Then, once it's 100% hydrogen and the storage is running out, we can convert it in between 3 - 5 minutes, while running, back to 100% natural gas. An independent power producer in Pennsylvania installed 21 MW of peaking with our J624 engines, which come online when the demand is high. They have plenty of natural gas with the Marcellus Shale, but these [engines] are also ready for hydrogen.”

With the unique conditions of U.S.-based power generation, the company’s hydrogen engines (at least for now) serve different roles, including:

• Backup power
• Emergency power
• Bridge power

But, as Collins noted, there are some permanent power installations in the United States, with a particular focus on data centers in the future. Currently, data centers are installing the engines in 50 - 100 MW blocks for backup power applications.

For mobile power in remote locations, “If you’re going to conduct a green project in the Yukon, such as this mining project currently running on LNG, they rely on our units and an LNG delivery to keep operations running,” said Collins. “In the future, they’ll be able to convert our units over to ammonia, which is easier to transport, or hydrogen.”

Transforming the Industry

According to Collins, backup power has been slowly transitioning from diesel to natural gas and looks forward to hydrogen down the road. This evolution demonstrates the desire for lower-carbon operations across the board, even for assets that run occasionally year-by-year.

INNIO Jenbacher’s hydrogen-ready engines are “plug and play”, with quick onsite assembly, conversion, and availability in a containerized or powerhouse solution. The flexibility makes these engines suitable for the ever-changing energy landscape at home and abroad, which increasingly demands more power as electrification increases exponentially in the coming years. Small-scale hydrogen solutions with high-power density establish a bridge, crossing the gap presented by intermittent renewables penetration, the need for availability, and stringent decarbonization initiatives.

With data centers on the rise, fast-start models offer significant solutions to these struggles, “We now have a fast-start engine that data centers require, arriving at full power in 15 seconds,” said Collins. “Our normal cycle to arrive at full power is about 45 seconds, but this 3.3-MW backup power generator is beginning to replace diesel and remove emissions for data center customers.”