Finnish power engineering company Wartsila has received contracts from three independent Brazilian power producers to provide conversions for their generating stations. The conversions are expected to enable them to attain fuel flexibility and switch from heavy fuel oil to gas operation.
The three customers are Geradora de Energia do Amazonas, Companhia Energetica Manauara, and Rio Amazonas Energia. Their power plants are located in Manaus City, Brazil. All three plants were delivered by Wartsila in 2006, and were predesigned to facilitate the conversion.
The combined value of the three contracts, which were received in January 2009, is in excess of E48 million. These combined plant conversions reportedly represent big projects undertaken by Wartsila Services. The converted plants are expected to be fully operational in October 2010.
When the conversions are completed, the power plants will be fully compliant with the stipulated flexibility requirements, allowing the fuel to be switched instantly from liquid to gas, or vice versa. According to Wartsila, the customers will have a choice of alternative fuels for environmental as well as for redundancy reasons, and will be able to take advantage of lowest fuel cost options.
The electrical output from the plants will remain the same whether they run on heavy fuel oil or gas. Furthermore, the fuel sharing system allows the engines to run on gas and liquid fuel in different proportions. This is expected to optimize the operation of the plants according to the availability of the fuels.
The three power plants have five Wartsila 18V46 engines each, and the total power output is more than 85MW per plant. Wartsila currently operates and maintains all three plants under contract.
