Electrification (the transition from natural gas or oil to electric drive compressors as a means of power) is a trend currently dominating industrial facilities. Additionally, electricity demand growth is on the rise due to the use of electric vehicles and growth in data centres (which require more and more energy for storage and AI). The forecast for electric generating capacity is anywhere between two and four times the current capacity.
It’s explosive growth that will be serviced by all forms of energy, including renewables. Of course renewable forms of energy, such as wind and solar, are intermittent and therefore require backup power, often in the form of natural gas powered turbines.
This is where EnergyLink International – a Calgary-based supplier of specialized and balanced solutions for air emissions and noise management, acoustic consulting, gas turbine auxiliary systems and turnkey buildings – enters the story, in a major way.
“We’re doing fabulous,” Harold A. Wong, president and CEO, affirms. “The company grew about 80 per cent last year from the year before, and this year we’re forecasting a 117 per cent increase in revenues over last year. We’ve grown an enormous amount. It’s a busy time out there in the energy industry and we’re participating in most of the sectors that are growing.”
With respect to gas turbine auxiliary systems, EnergyLink provides the nitrogen oxides (NOx) removal equipment required (regulations in the U.S. generally require NOx removal, while in Canada those regulations are generally lacking today). “At the moment we probably have the largest fleet of backup gas turbine selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems in the world,” Wong explains. “There’s a lot of demand for backup power for renewable electricity generation, not just from gas turbines, but also from reciprocating engines.”
Reciprocating engines are typically extremely loud, and EnergyLink’s acoustic mitigation business has been booming in service to that sector. “Data centres require base load power which needs to run all the time, and that requires gas turbine or reciprocating engine power plants to service the market,” Wong continues. “It’s a very vibrant market at the moment.”
Wong started EnergyLink in the mid-1990s as a consulting firm in the energy sector, predominantly for power projects. A chemical engineer by trade, he had worked for major oil and gas companies, including Chevron and Total, mostly in the EPC side, building gas processing plants in Alberta. “I was a process engineer and project manager for many gas plants,” he says.
EnergyLink operated until about 2005 when, though it remained in existence, it became mostly inactive. In 2019, Wong saw an opportunity to continue the NOx removal, air emissions control equipment and acoustic mitigation business when a company had gone into receivership.
“I picked up the line of business and worked with some very loyal and dedicated clients that really supported us to get EnergyLink going in that sector,” he recalls. “That was in 2019, and we’ve now grown to quite a substantial size. I would call us an engineering, procurement and construction company specializing in those market sectors of emission control.”
Today, EnergyLink’s SCR systems (which remove NOx) comprises about 40 per cent of the business, predominantly to U.S. clients. “In the U.S. you cannot put in a combustion source without having the NOx removed, and this trend is growing around the world,” Wong points out.
The company also provides gas turbine auxiliary systems, including exhaust silencing and stack systems. “We design the system for the performance that’s required and then we produce the detailed drawings, every nut and bolt on the system is drafted out,” he explains. “Most of our fabrication is for the U.S. market and happens in Mexico, with some in Canada and the U.S.”
EnergyLink’s acoustic management solutions comprise about 50 per cent of the business and involves containing and/or blocking the noise that comes from rotating equipment like engines, turbines and fans.
“We offer all-encompassing noise mitigation solutions,” he says. “As a team we have over 350 industrial plants where we provided acoustic performance guarantees. We design noise mitigation solutions and evaluate how the noise propagates to the far field. Our guarantee is the most stringent in the industry. We’re well known for our noise mitigation solutions for industrial sites and considered experts in the area. We provide all the components that mitigate noise propagation.”
Components include acoustic wall panels, ventilation systems with silencers and hot exhaust silencers. “There are regulations in Alberta and throughout North America regarding noise levels at residential, commercial and industrial locations,” he explains. “If you don’t comply with those regulations you can be penalized or shut down.”
Part of EnergyLink’s acoustic mitigation solutions business includes turnkey buildings on industrial sites, whether requiring acoustic mitigation or not. The company designs, fabricates or subcontracts fabrication and installs them for the site’s general contractor. “We’re finishing a very large turnkey building in Astoria, NY, just outside the LaGuardia airport,” he notes. “It’s the receiving end of a high voltage AC/DC line. There are radio frequencies emitted from that converter station and we shield the area from the radio frequency emissions.”
Since SCR systems and auxiliary products wear out over time, and there are many power plants over 20 years old, the company also offers retrofit services. “We go into existing facilities and determine what needs to be replaced,” Wong explains. “Quite often our team supplied the components to begin with so we know how and when to replace them.”
EnergyLink also has a subsidiary company called UE Compression based out of Denver, acquired just over a year ago. “They specialize in compression – natural gas, but also CO2 (required with carbon capture and transmission), hydrogen and air,” he says. “The company has a long history in compression and is now part of our overall scope of supply and services in the market.”
Given the much larger population and favorable regulatory regime, over 90 per cent of EnergyLink’s business is in the U.S. “Our clients are primarily EPC companies,” Wong says. “We provide the components and services they require. We also have end user clients that require equipment, like utilities and owners of power generating assets. The third class of clients we have are original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of gas turbines or reciprocating engines. The major OEMs are GE, Siemens, Solar Turbines, Wartsila and Caterpillar.”
The company has grown to approximately 80 employees, with a large number of subcontractors. Given its geographic reach of jobs, EnergyLink’s employees are scattered: a group in Calgary, some in Ontario, Tulsa, Minneapolis, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, other places in the U.S., and Mexico.
“Our culture is being supportive,” Wong says. “It’s a fundamental building block of ours. We’re also very innovative. We’re a bunch of engineers who like to build and create new and better ways of doing things. We walk a little faster and smile a little more when we’re innovating.”
To this end, the company has a patent pending on an improvement to its SCR system, and is working on other innovations.
As the world electrifies more and more, EnergyLink will continue to look to those markets that are favorable to its products. “We are going to grow globally,” he opines, “into geographies conducive to our products. There are many regions with very stringent regulations around noise mitigation and NOx removal. Though Canada is not quite there requiring NOx removal, we will get there. And Europe is tightening its regulations. We’ve also got some great opportunities to establish new services and products. We’ll continue to grow our business lines.”
He notes that all forms of energy are needed in the energy transition and that includes, in large part, natural gas: “I think politicians like to talk about non-carbon base fuels, but in reality all forms are needed and we’re experiencing this firsthand by building so many facilities that are natural gas based.”
