CHP Plant Project Awarded To Wärtsilä

Wärtsilä has been awarded a contract to deliver a 90 MW combined heat and power plant (CHP) to Dresden, Germany.

The facility has been ordered by DREWAG, Dresden’s local utility company, and will be delivered by Wärtsilä on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis. Wärtsilä will also maintain the plant for 10 years, with a five-year extension option. Performance targets are determined based on measured data and Wärtsilä guarantees the targets are met and maintained throughout the duration of the agreement. The order was booked in December 2018.

The Dresden-Reick power plant will incorporate eight Wärtsilä 31SG engines operating on natural gas delivering electrical output of approximately 90 MW. The 20-cylinder engine has a bore and stroke of 310 X 430 MM. It can be continuously operated at 10% load and can reach full load in two minutes from the start command, the company said. This enables them to provide immediate balancing of the grid as the system utilizes more and more energy from intermittent renewable sources, such as wind and solar.

Wärtsilä said the engine’s high efficiency and flexibility were cited as being key factors in the award of the contract. Another major consideration was the ability of the power plant solution to deliver electricity and district heating simultaneously, the company said.

“The state-of-the-art gas engine technology provided by Wärtsilä is designed to produce minute-to-minute power when it is most valuable,” said Dr. Frank Brinkmann, managing director, DREWAG. “It is equipped with the highest level of efficiency and emission control systems to supply safe, clean, and affordable energy for the state capital for the coming decades,”

Melle Kruisdijk, vice president, Europe, Wärtsilä Energy Business, said this is the second major CHP engine power plant that Wärtsilä is building in Germany, and the first with the new Wärtsilä 31SG engines.

The other project is for Kraftwerke Mainz-Weisbaden, which supplies the city of Mainz with power and district heating. That project includes 10 Wärtsilä 20V34SG engines.

The Dresden-Reick plant is scheduled to become operational in 2021.