Wärtsilä, a leading global supplier of flexible and efficient power plant solutions, has been awarded the contract to supply a complete Flexicycle™ dual-fuel power plant to the Dominican Republic. The turnkey project has been ordered by Empresa Generadora de Electricidad Haina (EGE Haina), the country’s largest power generation company. The value of the order is approximately €150m.
The Quisqueya II power plant ordered by EGE Haina will feature 12 Wärtsilä 50DF generating sets in combined cycle running primarily on natural gas, but with the capability to switch to heavy fuel oil as needed. The plant is scheduled to be fully operational during the second half of 2013, and will supply baseload electricity to the national grid.
This will be an identical twin power plant to the Quisqueya I plant located at the same site, which was ordered by Barrick Gold in September 2011. The two power plants have a total output of 430MW. They have separate owners, but both plants will be constructed on the same site as a single unit, that can be operated from one control room.
Largest power plant in the world delivered by Wärtsilä
"This Quisqueya I and II power plant complex becomes the biggest power plant in the world, delivered by Wärtsilä. This is solid proof of the attractiveness of Wärtsilä’s Flexicycle combined cycle solution. A key factor in the award of this important contract to Wärtsilä was the high efficiency offered by the Flexicycle solution. The suitability of a power plant based on multiple generating units for a relatively small power grid, and the dual fuel capability, were also crucial considerations," says Sampo Suvisaari, general manager, Central America and the Caribbean, Wärtsilä Power Plants.
The Wärtsilä Flexicycle solution combines the advantages of a flexible simple cycle plant with the superb efficiency of a combined cycle plant, in a unique way. Flexicycle power plants can be optimised for different outputs in the 100MW to 500MW range. The power plant solution is based on gas fired combustion engines and a steam turbine combined cycle. Each engine is equipped with a waste heat recovery steam generator. The power plant has one common steam turbine and a condenser. The cooling is typically arranged so that the combustion engines are cooled with closed loop radiators and the steam cycle with cooling towers.
EGE Haina is a 50% state-owned and 50% privately owned company and it owns several power plants in the Dominican Republic, including a 150MW barge-mounted power plant supplied by Wärtsilä. Wärtsilä already has a very strong presence in the country having more than 1,100MW of installed electricity generating capacity in operation.