29 September 2009

Global perspectives: Greece, Cyprus power plants powering up

By Cris Whetton

Finland's Wärtsilä won power plant orders, this time from Greece and Cyprus, strengthening its leading role in supplying electricity to the Eastern Mediterranean islands.

One order will supply power generation equipment to the island of Lesbos, belonging to Greece, and the other to Cyprus. The combined value of these orders is $58.6 million (€40 million). The contracts represent a total output of 72 MWe. The two new orders bring Wärtsilä’s power generating capacity in the region, either installed or on order, to more than 600 MW.

Local electricity demand surges dramatically during the tourist season when the resident population of 120,000 people increases two- to three-fold with tourists. Wärtsilä’s decentralized power plants offer a way to meet these increases in demand, while at the same time creating low environmental impact. The strict environmental protection standards of the EU require the power plants come equipped with the best available technologies for the reduction of harmful emissions, and they use very low sulphur content fuel oils. The Wärtsilä engines have the latest low emission technical solutions. Furthermore, since the Cyprus plant is near the town of Larnaca, it also has a separate nitrogen oxides reduction system to remove most of the flue gas nitrogen oxides.

The state-owned Public Power Corporation awarded a turnkey contract for Wärtsilä to supply additional generating capacity to its power plants on the Greek island of Lesbos. The contract represents an extension to an existing power plant, with the extra 22 MW capacity needed to meet the huge increase in demand that occurs during the tourist season. The Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC), a public utility, ordered a power plant with three Wärtsilä 18V46 engines, which will deliver over 50 MWe of energy. The new plant will be in Dhekelia, near the town of Larnaca in Cyprus. The new plant is a turnkey delivery by the Danish contractor BWSC, and it should be up and running in summer 2010.

Following its market entry into Great Britain, Germany’s Schmack Biogas AG has received its first order from France. The company will construct a biogas plant with an installed electrical capacity of 1.6 MW in St. Gilles du Mené, Brittany. The contract, worth more than $17.6 million (€12 million), comes from Géotexia Mené S.A., a JV, mostly from the agricultural sector. The main feedstock will be agricultural waste from the local area. The plant will be the largest of its kind in the country. Construction should begin this fall.

Cris Whetton is InTech’s European correspondent.