“This is the day we bury the EPC [engineering, procurement, construction] contract,” said Jyrki Urtio, vice president, power plants, Wärtsïlä, France, at the 10 January inauguration ceremony for the Wärtsïlä Power Module, in Mulhouse.
The Power Module, fuelled on gas or light fuel oil, is designed for ultra-fast-track construction. According to Wärtsïlä, the Power Module is “not a simple generator set placed in a container, as proposed by most of the packagers”, rather it is a complete power plant, which comes totally pre-engineered, with all systems manufactured and tested in the factory. The concept aims to minimise engineering work, and is designed for easy transportation, installation and commissioning – resulting in lead times as short as 80 days, from order to handover.
Using Wärtsïlä 220 SG gas or 200 LFO gensets, the capacity of each module is from 1.8 to 3.5 MWe. By adding modules together, on concrete sleepers, a power plant of up to 40 MWe can be constructed. The only installation work needed is connection of fuel, electrical outputs and cooling/heat recovery systems, using prefabricated fittings.
A CHP module can be added to the standard genset configuration. A black start version is also available in which a small genset ensures pre-heating, pre-lubrication and battery-charging functions.
The first Wärtsïlä Power Module, a twin module plant, entered service in Brazil last year, while the second is expected to be supplied to Chile.
