Honduran Power Project Announced

MAN Energy Solutions has won a contract to set up a combined-heat-and-power (CHP) plant for Progressive Energy, the energy arm of the ElcaTex Group in Choloma, Honduras.

The plant will be powered by three MAN 18V51/60 engines with an overall capacity of 54.8 MW, generating power and steam for a nearby textile factory. The 18V51/60 engine offers 18 MW at 514 rpm. The engine has a bore and stroke of 510 X 600 mm.

MAN Energy Solutions will take an engineering, procurement and construction role in the project and will be responsible for the construction of the entire plant.

While the MAN 51/60 engines will operate on heavy fuel oil (HFO) once the new plant opens, Progressive Energy plans to convert them to gas operation as soon as a secure supply of liquified natural gas (LNG) becomes available.

“The Central American market is experiencing a major trend towards gas-driven power solutions using various gas supply infrastructure models,” said Carina Viola, the responsible sales director for Central America at MAN Energy Solutions. “This is why we decided to choose our 18V51/60 engine for this market environment as it provides the highest efficiency and fuel flexibility. The switch to gas will reduce the plant’s emissions even further.”

“For textile manufacturing, steam is as important as power, which is why we were looking for a solution to efficiently produce electricity as well as steam to drive our manufacturing footprint,” said Mario Canahuati, corporative energy director at Progressive Energy.

Thorsten Dradrach, head of Sales for Power Plants in the Americas, MAN Energy Solutions, said MAN Energy Solutions offers the widest CHP generation portfolio available on the market and the company’s modular CHP plant concept is scalable from 7 MW upwards.