Wärtsilä has signed a contract to engineer, supply and install a major gas fuelled power plant in Mozambique. This will be the largest gas power plant ever installed in Mozambique and second largest power plant running exclusively on gas engines to be installed on the African continent. In addition to the plant itself, the turnkey contract includes the construction of a sub-station and a gas pipeline. The value of the power contract is EUR 138 million.
The contract has been signed with the joint venture Central Termica de Ressano Garcia, owned by Sasol New Energy from South Africa and the Mozambique state utility, Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM). The plant will be powered by a total of 18 Wärtsilä 34SG engines running on natural gas, with the gas being fed from the Pande and Temane gas fields. The plant is scheduled for completion by May 2014, and the electricity produced will be sold to EDM. Once completed, the power plant will form an important part in the development of the power generation infrastructure of Mozambique.
The selection of gas engine technology for this project was based on a number of considerations, but as Mozambique is a country with considerable gas reserves but a scarcity of water resources, it was a natural choice to go for gas engine technology like Wärtsilä’s that employs closed-circuit cooling with minimal water consumption.
Wärtsilä’s presence in southern Africa is becoming increasingly significant, and is likely to strengthen further as the use of natural gas fuel continues to be developed. A new Wärtsilä gas power plant built for Sasol New Energy in Sasolburg, South Africa is currently in the final stages of installation.
To date, Wärtsilä has delivered 470 power plants to Africa with a total output of 5000 MW. Globally, Wärtsilä has delivered 4600 power plants in 169 countries with a total generating capacity of nearly 49 GW.