Wärtsilä contracted to supply two power plants to Bangladesh

Wärtsilä has been awarded two contracts to supply power plant generating equipment to Bangladesh. The combined output of the two plants will be more than 200MW, to be supplied to the national grid.

Independent power producer PowerPac Mutiara Jamalpur Power Plant Ltd has ordered 12 20-cylinder Wärtsilä 32 generating sets with a total output of around 100MW. The new power plant will operate initially on heavy fuel oil, but the engines are ready to switch to gas operation when a supply of natural gas becomes available. The same owner, PowerPac-Mutiara Consortium, has also ordered six 18-cylinder Wärtsilä 46 engines in V-configuration and auxiliary equipment for its 100MW+ Khulna power plant project.

“These are important orders, for Wärtsilä of course, but also for the Bangladesh Power Development Board, which urgently needs this additional generating capacity. Our ability to supply the needed equipment within a very short time-frame was crucial to the award of these contracts, as was our strong track record in Bangladesh. Furthermore, a unique feature of our engine technology is that where required, they can be easily converted to run on gas as soon as a gas supply is available, and this too was a key factor in the award of these contracts. Wärtsilä employs nearly 500 people in the country, and as a result, can give unmatched support to all Wärtsilä installations throughout the region,” says Göran Richardsson, Sales Director, Wärtsilä Power Plants Asia.

With these two power plants, Wärtsilä currently already has in excess of 1850 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.

Delivery of the equipment will be made on a fast-track basis to meet the tight construction deadlines. Both plants are expected to come online before the end of the year.