The Kaloum 5 power plant is located in the Tombo district of Kaloum commune, the administrative centre of the capital Conakry in the Republic of Guinea. The purpose of the station is to improve the power supply on the interconnected network in Guinea.
According to Mr Diaby, the power plant was in bad condition and needed a total overhaul. “Before the overhaul, the power plant was in a state of advanced degradation, where cylinder heads, liners, pistons, bearings, turbochargers, and auxiliaries had to be repaired. The three generating sets achieved only 48% - 67% of their rated power of 10.4MW.”
Trust in Wärtsilä’s competence
The government-owned EDG had called in a consultant, who subsequently recommended that Wärtsilä be contracted for the overhaul. EDG found that Wärtsilä had the needed competence for this kind of work, in addition to having a good reputation and being the manufacturer of the original engines.
Mr Diaby says that the project, which took approximately 18 months to complete, went very well and according to schedule. The challenges Wärtsilä faced, which included the engine speed controllers and the alternator rotor on one generator, were handled more than satisfactorily by their skilled engineers. “We found that Wärtsilä’s staff acted very professionally throughout the project.”
