Wärtsilä Wins 200 MW Power Plant Contract

Wärtsilä will supply a flexible baseload 200 MW power plant to a country in the Northern Andes.

The plant will incorporate 11 Wärtsilä 50SG engines running on natural gas that are designed to provide the grid balancing capability that is essential with increasing amounts of intermittent wind and solar power generation entering the power systems, the company said. At the same time, the plant will serve as a capacity plant to back up the system in cases of shortage.

“This is an important step for Wärtsilä, as we are continuing to expand from our traditional markets in this region to a new key segment: flexible baseload,” said Gonzalo Granda, Business Development Manager, Wärtsilä Energy. “We are happy to have this customer taking a major step in investing in this project.”

The 18V 50SG engine has a bore and stroke of 500 X 508 mm and offers 18 875 kW in 60 Hz operation.

Commercial operation is scheduled to commence at the end of 2021. When operational, the 200 MW plant will supply electricity to the national grid. Wärtsilä is supplying and installing the plant on a full engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) basis.

“The plant will be yet another example of a best-in-class Wärtsilä flexible baseload solution in a system with a high share of renewable energy,” said Sampo Suvisaari, Energy Business Director for Latin America North, Wärtsilä Energy. “We are on a path to a 100% renewable energy future, which means that fast-starting and efficient load following flexibility will be increasingly needed to balance the power systems. It was also remarkable that the construction contract was negotiated remotely from start to finish.”