Wärtsilä, a leading global supplier of flexible and efficient power plant solutions, has been awarded three more contracts to supply power plant generating equipment to Bangladesh. The total overall output of these plants will be more than 250 MW, and all of them will produce electricity to be supplied to the national grid.
Delivery of the plants will be made on a fast-track basis in order to meet the tight construction schedules. These three contracts follow two other power plant orders from Bangladesh that Wärtsilä announced earlier this week.
The Government of Bangladesh has initiated a programme to rapidly increase its country's electricity production. Wärtsilä's ability to supply efficient and flexible generating equipment on a fast-track basis has resulted in these important new contracts. Another key factor in Wärtsilä being awarded these contracts was the company's unique technological ability to easily convert the engines to run on gas once gas becomes available. Furthermore, Wärtsilä employs nearly 500 people in the country and can give unmatched support to all Wärtsilä installations throughout the region.
One of the power plants is scheduled to be operational before the end of 2012 and two are planned to be in operation by April 2013. These most recent contracts are included in the fourth quarter 2011 order book.
Ace Alliance Power Ltd, an independent power producer (IPP), has ordered seventeen 20-cylinder Wärtsilä 32 engines and auxiliary units with a total output of approximately 150 MW. The new power plant will operate initially on heavy fuel oil (HFO), but the engines are ready to switch to gas operation when a supply of natural gas becomes available. This will be one of, if not the largest, single power plant installations by Wärtsilä in the eastern hemisphere.
The second order from the Independent Power Producer Raj-Lanka Power Company Ltd comprises six 20-cylinder Wärtsilä 32 generating sets with auxiliaries, which will produce a total output of 50 MW. The third order is from Max-Lanka Power Ltd, which is also an IPP, and has the same majority owner as Raj-Lanka Power Company. The new Max-Lanka Power site will operate using six 20-cylinder Wärtsilä 32 engines plus auxiliary units. The engines, which will have an output of 50 MW, will initially run on HFO but can be converted to gas operation when supplies become available. The majority owner of the Raj-Lanka and Max-Lanka power plants has successfully earlier installed four other power plants in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, utilizing Wärtsilä technology.
With these three power plants, Wärtsilä currently has already in excess of 2100 MW of installed or to be installed power generating capacity in Bangladesh. One-third of this is also operated and maintained under contract by Wärtsilä.
