Wärtsilä to deliver power plant to Turkish IPP

Wärtsilä has received a major order from independent power producer Yesilyurt Enerji Elektrik Uretim for a power plant to be installed in Turkey. The power plant will supply electricity for the company’s steel mill in Samsun, on the Black Sea coast of Turkey. Any surplus energy generated by the plant, will be sold to the national grid.

The intermediate load power plant is expected to be running for more than 6000 hours per year, and will feature eight 18-cylinder Wärtsilä 50SG engines running on natural gas. The output will be more than 145MW. However, together with a steam turbine in combined-cycle operation, the output will reach 160MW at full load. The plant is scheduled to be operational by October 2012.

The 18-cylinder Wärtsilä 50SG spark-ignited gas engine is the largest gas powered combustion engine generating set in the world. It reaches an exceptionally high net efficiency rating of more than 50% in combined-cycle mode. The engine was introduced in the latter part of 2010, and the very first installation was also in Turkey.

Samsun lies on Turkey’s Black Sea coast and is an area where environmental conservation is considered to be of prime importance. For this reason, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) ‘A’ category certificate was required before the power plant project could be approved. The Wärtsilä 50SG gas engines, which feature very low levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, fulfilled all the requirements of this ‘A’ category certification.

“This power plant will demand fast start-ups and shut-downs with high part-load efficiency. Wärtsilä’s technology is well proven and fully capable of meeting these requirements. High efficiency with a minimal environmental footprint were prime considerations in designing this project,” says Hikmet Yesilyur, executive member of the board at Yesilyurt Enerji Elektrik Uretim.