A First For Wärtsilä In Barbados

Wärtsilä will supply a 33 MW flexible power plant on a fast-track basis to the Barbados Light & Power Co. Ltd. (BLPC), the utility company on Barbados.

The power plant project is the first for Wärtsilä in the Caribbean country and it will be supplied as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project. The project is designed to bolster reliability of the Barbados electricity system and integration of renewables into it.

“With this project Wärtsilä enters the market in Barbados, and it represents a significant milestone for us,” said Mikael Backman, Energy Business director, Americas North, Wärtsilä Energy Business. “We are honored to be selected as EPC contractor for this project, and this choice by BLPC is yet another proof of the project management capabilities Wärtsilä is acknowledged for. We look forward to working closely with BLPC to complete this project on time.”

The Wärtsilä power plant is to be constructed at a site adjacent to BLPC’s 10 MW PV solar plant at Trents, St. Lucy, located on the northwestern coast of Barbados. When completed, the new power plant will provide much needed additional generating capacity and provide BLPC with the fast starting capability and flexibility needed in order to add more renewable generation to the island’s system, Wärtsilä said in a news release.

The new power plant will operate on four Wärtsilä 32 engines running on liquid fuel.

“This power plant, called Clean Energy Bridge, will bring stability to our generation capacity,” said Roger Blackman, managing director of Barbados Light & Power Co. “It allows us to retire older engines, and reduce fuel costs while supporting the transition to using 100% renewables. Once that target is achieved, we believe that the power plant will be necessary as back-up for resiliency purposes.”

The Wärtsilä plant is scheduled to be delivered in mid-2020. The project will increase Wärtsilä’s installed base in the Caribbean to 3186 MW.