Wärtsilä has received a major order for a power plant to be installed in Turkey. The contract has been placed by independent power producer Yesilyurt Enerji Elektrik Uretim A.S. The plant will supply electricity for the company’s steel mill in Samsun, on the Black Sea coast of Turkey. Any surplus energy generated by the plant will be sold to the national grid.
The intermediate load power plant is expected to be running for more than 6000 hours per year, and will feature eight 18-cylinder Wärtsilä 50SG engines running on natural gas. The output will be more than 145 MW, or with a steam turbine in combined cycle operation it will reach 160 MW at full load. The plant is scheduled to be operational by October 2012.
The 18-cylinder Wärtsilä 50SG spark-ignited gas engine is the largest gas powered combustion engine generating set available today. It reaches a very high net efficiency rating of more than 50 percent in combined cycle mode. The engine was introduced in the latter part of 2010, and the very first installation was also in Turkey.
Samsun is an area where environmental conservation is considered to be of prime importance. For this reason, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) ‘A’ category certificate was required before the power plant project could be approved. The Wärtsilä 50SG gas engines, which feature very low levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, fulfilled all the requirements of this ‘A’ category certification.
“This power plant will demand fast start-ups and shut-downs with high part-load efficiency. High efficiency with a minimal environmental footprint were prime considerations in designing this project,” says Hikmet Yesilyurt, executive member of the boardof Yesilyurt Enerji Elektrik Uretim.
Wärtsilä has been present in Turkey since 1994 when the first units were delivered. Today, some 330 Wärtsilä engines are already in operation or awaiting installation, producing well in excess of 3 GW of generating capacity. A third service workshop is planned to be opened early in 2012.