Wärtsilä has been awarded a turnkey contract to supply a complete power station for the Kipevu III thermal power project in Mombasa, Kenyas second largest city.
p>Wärtsilä has been awarded a turnkey contract to supply a complete power station for the Kipevu III thermal power project in Mombasa, Kenyas second largest city.
The plant will generate 117MWe and will supply electricity to the national grid. The contract was signed in November 2009 and the plant is scheduled to be operational in January 2011. The order has been placed by the Kenya Electricity Generating Company Ltd (Kengen), a partly state owned utility.
Wärtsilä will supply seven of its Wärtsilä 18V46 engines, initially to be run on heavy fuel oil, to provide the generating capacity for flexible baseload supply. The delivery also includes a gas insulated switchgear substation for connection to the existing grid. The power plant will also provide the utility with reliable grid stability.
In announcing the award of this contract, Tony van Velzen, Regional Director for Africa, Wärtsilä Power Plants, commented, "Our customer requested a fast track project with reliable equipment at a competitive price, and Wärtsilä was able to meet these demands. Additionally, the engines can be converted to gas when gas supply is locally available. Our local presence and ability to provide service support was also a critical factor in our being selected."
When completed the Kipevu III project will bring a total generating capacity delivered by Wärtsilä to Kenya in excess of 350MW.
Flexible baseload power generation
Competitive lifecycle costs, world-class product quality, fuel and operational flexibility and proven long-term reliability make Wärtsilä power plants suitable for both stationary and floating baseload applications. Wärtsilä's flexible baseload power plants cater perfectly to the needs of, for example, utilities and Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
These plants are flexible to follow the actual load and produce the necessary electricity typically from natural gas, heavy fuel oil and from bio fuels. And as global energy consumption grows, the high modularity of Wärtsilä's products makes it easy to expand or modify the power plant to meet these future needs.
Depending on the load profile, ambient conditions and what fuel is available Wärtsilä makes sure customers will get the most productive and cost-effective solution - even in the most challenging locations - in city centres, remote regions of developing countries, distant islands, and in places with extreme climates, and other places considered too challenging for other forms of power generation.
