Wärtsilä in Africa: long-term maintenance agreement in Nigeria

Wärtsilä is also heavily involved in energy supply in Africa. For instance, the Finnish company has signed a long-term optimized maintenance agreement covering power plants in three locations owned by Paras Energy, a 100 percent privately-owned Nigerian energy provider.

Wärtsilä in Africa: Nigeria

The aim of the agreement is to ensure the plants’ continued high levels of availability, reliability and efficiency, while providing important cost predictability for future budgeting purposes. The agreement was booked by Wärtsilä in the second quarter of 2021. The plants covered by the five-year agreement are operated with Wärtsilä 34SG gas-fuelled engines producing a combined total output of approximately 132 MW. Based on an average connected capacity of some 6,5 kW for each Nigerian home, this will represent the annual consumption equivalent of close to 20,300 domestic households.

‘Helsinki – Dakar’

Wärtsilä will convert the close to 90 MW Bel-Air power plant in Dakar, Senegal to operate on liquefied natural gas (LNG). The plant, which is owned by Senelec, Senegal’s public utility company, currently operates on heavy fuel oil. The conversion will future-proof the facility as Senegal’s long-term strategy is to lower the carbon footprint of energy production by switching to gas when a domestic supply is available. This project is part of an interim LNG-to-Power ‘bridge’ solution, and is the first ever power plant gas conversion in Senegal. The order with Wärtsilä was booked in Q1 2021. The Bel-Air plant’s existing six Wärtsilä 46 engines will be converted to six Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines. Wärtsilä’s current operation & maintenance agreement covering the existing engines is being renegotiated in view of the conversion. Wärtsilä’s dual-fuel engine technology allows the use of multiple fuels, providing the option to operate on gas with liquid fuels as back-up.

GRID BALANCING TECHNOLOGY