Located near Port Moresby, the power plant was constructed by Wärtsilä in partnership with Australian engineering company Clough
Image: Port Moresby Power Station being inaugurated by the Hon. James Marape, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Mr Peter Botten, Managing Director of Oil Search Limited and Mr Wapu Sonk, Managing Director of Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited. Photo: courtesy of Wärtsilä.
Finland-based technology group Wärtsilä has commissioned its 58MW gas-fired power plant in Papua New Guinea.
Located near Port Moresby, the power plant was constructed by Wärtsilä in partnership with the Australian engineering company Clough.
The power plant will operate on six Wärtsilä 34SG engines
The gas-fired power plant will operate on six Wärtsilä 34SG engines running on clean burning natural gas.
It is the first utility-scale gas engine project in Papua New Guinea, and will make a contribution to reducing carbon emissions from electricity generation in the country.
The gas-fired power plant is part of an infrastructure building programme developed by NiuPower, owned by Papua New Guinea’s national oil and gas company Kumul Petroleum Holdings and Oil Search.
NiuPower focuses on the development of power generation in the country.
The net capacity of the gas-fired power plant represents nearly 29% of the installed capacity of the Port Moresby System.
NiuPower expects that it will generate yearly savings of around 100m Papua New Guinean kina ($28.98m).
NiuPower CEO Michael Uiari said: “This power plant is an extremely important addition to Papua New Guinea’s energy portfolio, and we are very pleased with the technology and services provided by Wärtsilä that will allow us to meet our economic and environmental targets for the project.
“We also appreciate the fact that the power plant was built according to the rather demanding time schedule, and again we thank both Wärtsilä and Clough for this.”
Wärtsilä will also hold the responsibility of the operation and maintenance of the plant.
Wartsila Energy Business Australasia energy business director Frederic Carron said:“Wärtsilä is proud to be part of this significant power infrastructure project. We are very pleased to have successfully delivered the high efficiency Port Moresby Power Station to NiuPower.
“Running on domestic natural gas, it provides low carbon energy, which reduces the country’s imports of diesel.”
The power plant was inaugurated by the country’s PM James Marape on 6 December.