Technology firm Wärtsilä has announced that it has completed and handed over a 100-MW combined heat and power plant to German utility Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden (KMW).
Wärtsilä supplied and built the plant on a full engineering, procurement, and construction contract. The scope also includes a comprehensive 15-year maintenance agreement that guarantees the plant’s availability and reliability.
The plant was handed over to KMW on Dec. 23 and allows the utility to feed excess heat generated during power generation into the Mainz district heating network. Up to 96MW of capacity will be fed into the district heating system, enough to heat some 40,000 households.
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The plant operates with ten gas-fueled Wärtsilä 34SG engines. The operational flexibility of the plant enables KMW to start and stop the engines without limitations as fast as within 2 to 5 minutes. This provides essential grid balancing support as the power system incorporates ever-increasing renewable sources.
The facility could play a key role in helping Germany reach its target of increasing its capacity from CHP plants to 25% of the total energy mix by 2025. This will also help the EU nation to become greenhouse gas neutral by 2050. Germany has set the preliminary target of cutting emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
Jà¶rg Hà¶hler, CTO/member-management board, Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden AG, said: “This commencement of commercial operations for the Wärtsilä CHP plant provides us with a modern, agile, low-carbon system capable of utilising green energy assets to the full. Fast-acting power generation is essential in today’s energy markets, and this plant meets all our requirements in this respect.”
