Wärtsilä, a leading global supplier of decentralised power plant solutions, has been awarded a major contract for building a power plant in Brazil. This turnkey contract is valued at close to €200m and the plant will have an electrical output of 380MW. The order will be taken into Wärtsilä’s order book during the second quarter of 2010. Commercial operation of the power plant is scheduled for 1 January 2012. This project represents the largest power plant ever built by Wärtsilä anywhere in the world.
The order has been placed by Energética Suape II, a company jointly owned by CIBE Participação and Petrobras. An operations and maintenance (O&M) contract is also under negotiation between Wärtsilä and the customer.
“The high overall efficiency of the Wärtsilä engines, together with the company’s ability to provide a total power solution, including operation and maintenance if required, were key factors in us selecting Wärtsilä. Furthermore, as Wärtsilä already has a number of large power plants in the area, the company can readily deliver us strong local support,” explains Mr Wilson Brasil, president of Energética Suape II.
The plant will be powered by Wärtsilä 20V46 generating sets, running on heavy fuel oil. The electricity will be fed to the national grid to supplement the country’s primarily hydropower generation, which is subject to seasonal fluctuations. Hydro power accounts for some 90% of Brazil’s electricity production. The customer’s specific requirements are for a power plant capable of providing fast response to the changing grid-load needs. Wärtsilä’s flexible solution is ideally suited for this kind of application.
The new power plant will be built in the Suape industrial district of the town of Cabo in the province of Pernambuco, in north-eastern Brazil. Wärtsilä has delivered or has under construction a total of 22 power plants in Brazil. These power plants, together this new order, will produce a combined generating capacity of more than 2,000MW.