A more profitable power plant
Wärtsilä´s project team followed-up on progress daily to ensure that the contractual milestones were fulfilled. The time challenge was solved through good co-operation between Wärtsilä and the AES O&M team. “We only had one party to follow up the progress with, since Wärtsilä had total responsibility for the full commissioning and testing.”
For AES, it is more convenient and profitable to run the IPP4 power plant on gas than HFO. This is mainly because the gas is delivered via pipeline to the power plant, whereas the HFO was delivered by trucks. The environmental impact from gas operations is also smaller than compared to HFO operation. The dispatch order for IPP4, as per the PPA, is higher on gas, hence the power plant is also more profitable. “Our power plant has now full operating flexibility. The most important benefit for us is that we are today able to fulfil our contractual obligations towards NEPCO, the grid operator, with regards to switching the plant to natural gas operation. And of course, that we now deliver on all the required performance guarantees of the plant,” says Mr Salameh.
After the commissioning work, Wärtsilä provided post-installation support, as a supervisor was on site monitoring the operations and providing support as necessary. Would Mr Khaled Salameh then recommend other power plant owners with similar needs to take advantage of Wärtsilä’s expertise? “Yes, I would recommend that,” he concludes.