Wartsila gets Batam power plant engine conversion project

Finland's power plant services provider W?rtsil? announced Thursday it had received a contract to convert seven W?rtsil? 18V32 engines into dual-fuel operation at the Batamindo Industrial Park on the Indonesian island of Batam, where the conversion of another five W?rtsil? 18V32 engines is already underway. All the engines at the power plant will, after the conversions, operate mainly on natural gas.

PT Batamindo Investment Cakrawala acquired its first four W?rtsil? 18V32 generating sets in 1993 to deliver electrical power to the Batamindo Industrial Park. Since then, the Industrial Park has grown rapidly and power demand increased as a result. To date, the power plant has sixteen W?rtsil? 18V32 engines. The Industrial Park covers an area of 320 hectares and employs more than 60,000 Indonesians. Some 50% of the tenants in the Industrial Park are involved in electronics and electrical manufacturing.

In 2004, natural gas became available on the island of Batam as the Sumatra?Singapore gas pipeline came into operation. PT Batamindo Investment Cakrawala considered how it might take advantage of this opportunity to save fuel costs by either converting the existing engines to run on natural gas instead of heavy fuel oil, installing a new gas turbine plant, or combining extension and conversion of the existing power plant. The third alternative of extension and conversion was chosen to give the plant flexibility in the fuel that can be used and because of its economical investment cost. As diesel and dual-fuel generating sets have better efficiencies than gas turbines in part-load operation, this option also provides the best efficiency for the plant as electrical demand from the Industrial Park varies.

The latest extension of the plant was contracted in March 2005. Comprising three W?rtsil? 18V32DF dual-fuel engines, it will increase the plant capacity to about 120 MWe. These engines are currently being installed and are due for commissioning by early 2006.

In May 2005 W?rtsil? was awarded the contract to convert five of the existing heavy fuel-burning W?rtsil? 32 engines to the DF (dual-fuel) version so that they can run on either natural gas (with pilot oil injection) or heavy fuel oil, and in November 2005 the contract to convert the remaining seven engines was signed. These are EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contracts covering engine components, ancillaries, control and automation, installation and commissioning. It is expected that all 12 engines will be converted and successfully run on gas before the end of 2006.(alex)