Wärtsilä to Supply Extension to Flexicycle Power Station in Senegal

Wärtsilä will supply an extension to a 53 MW Flexicycle power plant currently under construction near Dakar, Senegal. The extension will comprise two Wärtsilä 46 engines running on heavy fuel oil, with a combined capacity of 34 MW. Both phases of the project will be fast-track delivered on a turn-key basis. The contract has been issued by ContourGlobal, an international power generation company with approximately 4000 MW of capacity around the world. The 53 MW first phase is scheduled to be in operation in May 2016, and phase two in October 2016.

The new power plant will provide a 10 percent increase to Senegal’s current 860 MW total electricity generation capacity.

 

“This plant will be critical to covering the electricity demand in Senegal. It will produce affordable energy that is crucial for the people and the economy. The importance of the project was highlighted by the Ministry of Energy of Senegal as they requested the building of an extension for the power plant during construction of phase one,” says Cheick-Oumar Sylla, CEO, Africa & Solution Business at ContourGlobal. ContourGlobal is a repeat customer for Wärtsilä, having engine plants supplied by the company also in Togo and Rwanda. 

 

The power plant will feed electricity to the national grid under a 20 year power purchase agreement (PPA) between ContourGlobal and Senelec, the national electricity company of Senegal. The project is financed by International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank Group, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). As the development financial arm of the U.S. government, OPIC links the project to President Obama’s Power for Africa initiative, which aims to add 30 000 MW of new power generation capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa.  

 

The Senegal project is designed so that the plant can quickly be converted to natural gas as soon as it becomes available. Earlier this year, Senelec announced plans to invest in a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal. This will improve Senegal’s fuel security and lower the cost of electricity.  

Wärtsilä’s Flexicycle solution couples ultra-flexible internal combustion engines with a combined cycle heat recovery system. Each engine has a dedicated waste heat steam generator, and a common steam turbine and condenser. The system maximises fuel efficiency without compromising operational flexibility, and is particularly suitable for flexible baseload operation. 

 

“We chose Wärtsilä for two reasons: the high-efficiency technology, and the ability to execute fast turn-key projects reliably and within the schedule,” Sylla concludes. 

 

With the new project up and running, Wärtsilä’s installed capacity in Senegal will reach 465 MW, some 55 percent of the country’s total capacity. In all of Africa, Wärtsilä has delivered approximately 6500 MW of power plant capacity. Globally, Wärtsilä’s installed base is 58 GW in 175 countries. 

The extension order was included in Wärtsilä’s order book in November 2015, whereas the contract for phase one was signed in July 2014.