Peaking power plants play a vital role in maintaining grid reliability by supplying balancing power when demand is highest. Operators need to know that generators can be ready within minutes, with uptime maintained, maintenance on schedule, and spare parts and technical expertise available when required.
Having operated the Goodman Energy Center since 2008, Midwest Energy wanted to ensure it could continue to provide industry-leading energy services for its customers with a focus on safety, reliability, affordability, and resilience. Like many utility companies, Midwest Energy has concerns regarding increasing supply chain lead times and technical labor availability. Those concerns coupled with a forecasted increase in regional load has put pressure on capacity. In addition, accreditation changes reinforced the need to reduce unplanned downtime.
To address these challenges, Midwest Energy expanded its long-standing relationship with Wärtsilä with a 10-year Optimized Maintenance service agreement. Midwest Energy and Wärtsilä have worked together since the 2008 delivery of nine Wärtsilä natural gas-fueled generators. The generators are grouped into two plants and facilitate operational flexibility facilitating a constant supply of power to the grid. Three additional Wärtsilä generators were added to the Goodman Energy Center in 2016.
Midwest Energy has benefited from Wärtsilä’s support over the years and so the new long-term service agreement was a natural extension of the relationship to ensure stability and reliability over the next decade.
The Wärtsilä Optimized Maintenance agreement
As part of the 10-year Optimized Maintenance agreement, Wärtsilä will supply parts for all planned maintenance as well as perform scheduled technical servicing at prescribed maintenance intervals. Wärtsilä will also provide remote support, control systems patching, and Wärtsilä Expert Insight service to predict and prevent any problems before they cause downtime.
The Optimized Maintenance agreement will support Midwest Energy to ensure outage timeframes are met and spare parts are available when needed. It will also ensure price certainty and budget stability, reducing commercial and contracting risk. Midwest Energy will also benefit from a simplified administrative structure and reduced workload.
