Power Supply Companies

With Spilling on the team: Municipal and regional power supply companies.

Gas transfer stations that are installed in the utlities to distribute natural gas to the consumer networks of towns and communities must be able to compensate the considerable fluctuations of the gas supply depending to the time of the year and day. 

That is why the optimum size of the Spilling unit is always selected under consideration of the load fluctuations of the gas network and the controllability of the expander unit.  

Each expansion machine has an operating range that has an upper and a lower limit, which should match the respective load profile optimally. Only this way can a largely continuous operation of the plant so with a high electricity production (kWh) and the respective economic efficiency be ensured. In detail:

  • If the gas expander is over-dimensioned, it has a high output during peak load times, however the capacity cannot be fully utilised during basic load times and might have to even be switched off. 
  • If the gas expander is under-dimensioned, it can be operated continuously, however probably energy recovery potential remains unused and the specific investment costs will probably be too high.

This is the reason why more and more utilities opt for Spilling natural gas expansion machines: 
The modular design and the outstanding partial load efficiency factor of this piston expander make it especially suited for use in the gas transfer stations of electricity generation plants.
power supply companies

Electricity from heat: Ecological energy generation including climate protection.

Since natural gas is cooling down more in an expansion machine than over a reducing valve, the gas has to be re-heated accordingly. Companies can convert this additional preheat energy into electricity with and efficiency factor of 85 to almost 100% depending on the type of Spilling piston expander.

the most commonly used heat sources are according to availability

  • District heating systems
  • Hot water boiler plants
  • Exhaust heat from combined heat and power plants 

When the CHP plant (combined heat and power plant) provides the necessary preheating energy, the electricity generation potential can be even additionally increased – by combining and expansion unit with a CHP even by 50 to 60% compared to preheating using a boiler unit only.
electricity from heat

The application range of Spilling gas expansion units covers


Gas volume flows from 5,000 to 100,000 Nm³/h 
Outputs approx. 100 to 3.000 kW
Inlet pressure from 6 to approx. 60 barg
Discharge pressure from 50 mbar to 25 barg

sorted duration load curve

Services and accessories

The Spilling delivery and services offering ranges from single engines to a complete, application and dimension-specific units to preheat gas including piping, fittings, electrical control and safety technology according to your specifications. Spilling will also gladly deliver, assemble and perform the commissioning of the unit for you. 

If you would like to receive a dimensioning concept or a quote, please use our Spilling inquiry.

Your benefits


  • Individually customised expander configurations 
  • Individually tailored power yield at full and partial load due to filling-regulation 
  • Planned and dimensioned as integrated plants based on many years of extensive experience
Gas expansion
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