The Transitional Energy Changemaker - Guang Guan

“For me, the first aspect of transitional energy is making our existing assets as reliable and as sustainable as possible so that they can continue working well until they’re no longer needed,” says Guang. 

“We work with clients to determine what asset management, modifications, upgrade or repowering works are required to keep their assets as functional, efficient and reliable as possible so that they can continue to support the changing energy generation portfolio.

“The second aspect is exploring additional energy generation alternatives that are either currently underutilised or emerging in our market – such as hydrogen-capable gas turbines, energy-from-waste, compressed air energy storage, or carbon capture and storage (CCS).”

The team is keen to support clients to investigate these new opportunities and to determine whether they can be viable and feasible in the short, medium and long-term. 

International insights support Australia’s new opportunities

Working at the cutting edge of new technologies brings a range of challenges as there are few reference projects in Australia. Leveraging WSP’s global scale and international expertise is a major advantage.

“For example, we’re working with teams in Canada, Singapore and the UK who have experience in CCS, waste-to-energy and compressed air energy storage – which brings that expertise into our projects. Our ability to work with WSP experts around the world is a really important point of difference for us.”

Guang knows the benefit of WSP’s global presence on a personal level too. He has been with the company since starting out as a graduate mechanical engineer, He appreciates having had the opportunity to extend his own international experience by working for periods in WSP’s offices in Singapore and in the UK.   

Australia’s energy transition isn’t only about more new wind, solar and batteries

Guang’s team may not be designing new wind, solar and battery projects, but they’re integral to the energy transition.

“The transition to Net Zero in 2050 needs a range of technologies that can play complementary roles and ensure that the grid is stable and the lights stay on,” explains Guang. 

Transitional energy projects are full of challenging engineering problems, so the team derives a great sense of achievement from working in this area. However, with so many existing projects that need to be serviced in the energy space as well as new projects, one of the biggest challenges is resourcing.

“We find that many people who have worked with conventional generation have transferable skills in this transitional space. This is beneficial for their career as well as being fantastic for our clients and the energy sector as a whole,” says Guang.

“We look at how we can draw on any extra capacity and transferable skills in other groups within WSP to assist on our projects including geotechnical, environment and planning teams, drawing on their experience to help us in the early stages of new generation projects,” he says. “We also work with our Advisory team to understand the commercial drivers and viability of these projects.”

Another area of collaboration is with WSP’s Waste team, in the quest to generate clean energy from general domestic and commercial waste as well as the ability of production of biogas from food and organic waste (FOGO), reducing methane emissions from landfills.

Waste-to-energy as an interim waste management solution

The team has been working on a range of waste-to-energy projects. He observes that Australian waste-to-energy projects have struggled to get off the ground in the past, due to financial uncertainties, a lack of understanding of the technology in Australia, community perceptions, and environmental and regulatory factors.

“This is changing and more projects are being approved,” he says. “Work is still needed to build greater community acceptance of these projects as an interim waste management solution as well as energy opportunity. They may not be the final answer to our waste problem but they are significantly better alternatives to landfill in the short-term.”

Breaking new ground in hydrogen-enabled gas turbine projects 

The team has  been working on hydrogen-enabled gas turbine projects that are particularly challenging because they’re the first of their kind in Australia. One of the main drivers for the technology is that hydrogen-enabled gas turbines can be used on demand when needed to ‘firm’ intermittent renewables. 

Thriving on challenges

Working in a high-demand field with so many exciting challenges and problems to solve makes every day different. Guang’s team could be exploring options and feasibility studies for one client whilst helping another client with asset management on their currently operating assets. “We have opportunities to work with lots of different disciplines and gain a holistic view of projects,” he says.

Clearly, Guang and his team are relishing the challenges, diversity and novelty of their projects and proud to be supporting the evolution of Australia’s energy future.

At WSP, we’re taking energy evolution forward by accelerating the path to an energy-secure future. It is time to rethink how we plan, design and engineer our places and energy systems. To learn more, contact Guang Guan.